Receipt of this postdoctoral fellowship award would facilitate the applicant's long-term objective to become a productive, independent investigator in the area of adolescent health and development. Lauren Shomaker, PhD has particular interests in social competence and understanding development of disordered eating and co-morbid socio-emotional and behavioral problems. The proposed training plan will enable her to obtain further expertise in pediatric disordered eating and its overlap with obesity, and acquire advanced skills in the methodologies used to study these problems. These goals will be accomplished in the rich training environments of USUHS and NIH, and through research mentorship with two co-sponsors with expertise in the fields of disturbed eating and pediatric obesity (Marian Tanofsky-Kraff, PhD, Jack A . Yanovski, MD, PhD). Dr. Shomaker has put together a strong team of consultants with expertise in diversity in obesity treatment (Nazrat Mirza, MD, ScD), eating in the absence of hunger ( Myles Faith, PhD), eating disorders (J. Kevin Thompson, PhD), and nutrition (Nancy Sebring, MEd, RD). Pediatric overweight has gained increasing recognition as a major public health concern with striking personal, societal, and healthcare costs. Overweight youth are at increased risk for immediate and future physical health problems (e.g., diabetes) and socio-emotional difficulties (e.g., depression). Identification of eating behaviors such as eating in the absence of hunger and disordered eating associated with risk for obesity onset is critical for designing effective interventions. In the proposed project, Dr. Shomaker employs a laboratory design to examine whether eating in the absence of hunger is associated with weight status in adolescence. Participants will be 120 adolescents from a racially and ethnically diverse community sample. Adolescents'caloric intake will be observed during two successive test meals. Adolescents first will eat until they are full and are then presented with access to a different array of highly palatable snack foods. The primary hypothesis is that overweight adolescents will eat more during the second meal (eating in the absence of hunger) than their non-overweight counterparts. The study also aims to examine links between eating in the absence of hunger and disordered eating as assessed by interview and questionnaires.
Additionally, using SEM, a provisional theoretical model of proposed relations among interpersonal interactions, body image, negative affect, depressive symptoms, disordered eating, eating in the absence of hunger, and adolescent overweight will be examined. Such an investigation is a crucial step in facilitating the formation of accurate, integrated models of the temporal sequence of eating behaviors that lead to future obesity and disordered eating.
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