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Child Adolesc Soc Work J (2013) 30:3747
DOI 10.1007/s10560-012-0274-0
Julia E. Thompson B. Allyson Phillips
Andy McCracken Kenneth Thomas
Wendy L. Ward
Published online: 11 August 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Abstract The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of social anxiety in obese children treated in a weight management clinic. We hypothesized that social anxiety would positively correlate with obesity, and that extremely obese patients would have signicantly higher rates of social anxiety when compared to obese patients. Information was collected at a multidisciplinary treatment clinic for obese youth during the rst clinic visit. The social anxiety scale was administered (including parent-report and self-report scales for both elementary and adolescent versions) and demographic data was obtained. Social anxiety was found to be signicantly positively correlated with BMI percentile. In addition, extremely obese patients had signicantly higher social anxiety scores than obese youth at least for elementary-age youth. Trends in gender differences and racial differences in this obese pediatric clinical sample were consistent with results found in community samples. Social anxiety and obesity were found to be positively correlated in this pediatric clinic-based population. For elementary-age patients, extremely obese patients were at greater risk than obese patients for social anxiety and its various symptomsfear of negative evaluation, social avoidance/distress in new situations, and social avoidance/distress in general. Results for adolescents were less clear. Clinical implications of these results were discussed. Limitations of this study, and directions for future research were also discussed.
J. E. Thompson
Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
B. Allyson Phillips A. McCracken W. L. Ward (&)
UAMS Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, and Arkansas Childrens Hospital, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 1 Childrens Way, Slot 512-21, Little Rock, AR 72202-3591, USAe-mail: [email protected]
K. Thomas
Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Little Rock, AR, USA
Social Anxiety in Obese Youth in Treatment Setting
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38 J. E. Thompson et al.
Keywords Pediatric obesity Social anxiety
Introduction
It is estimated that, within the United States, 15.3 % of school-age children are considered obese along with 15.5 % of the adolescent population (Ogden et al. 2006; Pohl et al. 2006; Strauss and Pollack 2003). Along with the medical...