Brief report: Quality of life in overweight youth - The role of multiple informants and perceived social support

Objective To examine the impact of overweight status on pediatric quality of life (QOL). Method This correlational study examined the relationship between weight, social support, race, informant, and QOL in a sample of 107 clinically overweight youth, ages 12 to 17 years. Results Regression analysis did not support the relation between QOL and weight. Social support was a significant predictor of youth reports of overall QOL. Males reported better physical QOL than females by both parent and youth report. Paired-samples t-tests supported a discrepancy between child and parent-proxy reports of QOL; parents reported significantly worse QOL than their children across many dimensions. Analysis of variance found no significant difference between Caucasian and African American youth's QOL. Conclusions These results highlighted the importance of considering informant, gender, and the impact of social support when measuring QOL in clinically overweight pediatric populations.