title: Longitudinal trajectories of perceived body weight: adolescence to early adulthood.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine longitudinal trajectories of perceived weight from adolescence to early adulthood by gender.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed 9 waves (1997-2005) of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 8302) using Mplus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Perceived overweight  increased over time among girls and did not level off until 23 years of age. Blacks had a lower perceived weight for their actual weight and a slower rate of increase in perceived weight than did whites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Intervention programs designed to prevent or reduce obesity should  evaluate weight perceptions for both adolescents and young adults prior to implementing each intervention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. seo@indiana.edu
authors.forename: Dong-Chul
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Kaigang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D044383:Black People; D001828:Body Image; D001835:Body Weight; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult