title: Adolescent affiliations and adiposity: a social network analysis of friendships and obesity.
abstract: Friendship choices and BMI were measured for 617 adolescents 11-15 years of age. Overweight youth were twice as likely to have overweight friends. There was a weak association between social position and weight status. Overweight youth nominated more friends but were nominated as friends less frequently than their normal weight peers.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Prevention Research, School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Alhambra, California 91803, USA. tvalente@usc.edu
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.forename: Kayo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.forename: Chih-Ping
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Spruijt-Metz
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D010379:Peer Group; D012944:Social Support