Table 2.
Percentage of Adolescents with Accurate Weight Perceptions and the Direction of Inaccurate Perceptions by Sex and Objective Weight Category
| Underestimate | Accurate | Overestimate | Total | Na | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Sample | |||||
| Underweight | - | 73.5% | 26.5% | 100.0% | 559 |
| Normal weight | 16.4% | 68.8% | 14.9% | 100.0% | 8,959 |
| Overweight | 35.1% | 64.9% | - | 100.0% | 1,681 |
| Obese | 15.1% | 81.9% | - | 97.0% | 1,590 |
| Girls | |||||
| Underweight | - | 78.0% | 22.0% | 100.0% | 247 |
| Normal weight | 9.9% | 66.9% | 23.2% | 100.0% | 4,405 |
| Overweight | 20.4% | 79.6% * | - | 100.0% | 836 |
| Obese | 7.5% | 92.5% * | - | 100.0% | 689 |
| Boys | |||||
| Underweight | - | 70.6% | 29.4% | 100.0% | 312 |
| Normal weight | 22.4% | 70.5% | 7.0% | 100.0% | 4,554 |
| Overweight | 49.0% | 51.0% | - | 100.0% | 845 |
| Obese | 20.4% | 79.6% | - | 100.0% | 901 |
Source: National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), Waves 1 and 2.
Note: The definition of accuracy allows for a margin of error for adolescents' with objective weights near the clinical cut-points between weight categories.
a
Given the data is multiply imputed the N's are not consistent across imputations. The reporte N's are the average N's across the five imputed data sets.
*
Girls are significantly different (P <.01) in their likeilhood of being accurate relative to boys in the same weight category.