We employ Add Health data to show that friendship networks, constructed from mutual friendship nominations, are important in building weight perception, setting weight goals, and measuring social marginalization among adolescents and young adults. We study the relationship between individuals' perceived weight status, actual weight status, weight status relative to friends' weight status, and weight goals. This analysis helps us understand how individual weight perceptions might be formed, what these perceptions do to the weight goals, and how friends' relative weight affects weight perception and weight goals. Combining this information with individuals' friendship network helps determine the influence of social relationships on weight-related variables. Multinomial logistic regression results indicate that relative status is indeed a significant predictor of perceived status, and perceived status is a significant predictor of weight goals. We also address the issue of causality between actual weight status and social marginalization (as measured by the number of friends) and show that obesity precedes social marginalization in time rather than the other way around. This lends credence to the hypothesis that obesity leads to social marginalization not vice versa. Attributes of the friendship network can provide new insights into effective interventions for combating obesity since adolescent friendships provide an important social context for weight-related behaviors.

中文翻译：

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友谊网络分析及其在解释肥胖中的作用


我们利用 Add Health 数据来表明，由相互友谊提名构建的友谊网络对于建立体重认知、设定体重目标以及衡量青少年和年轻人的社会边缘化非常重要。我们研究个人的感知体重状况、实际体重状况、相对于朋友体重状况的体重状况以及体重目标之间的关系。该分析帮助我们了解个人体重感知是如何形成的，这些感知对体重目标有何影响，以及朋友的相对体重如何影响体重感知和体重目标。将这些信息与个人的友谊网络相结合有助于确定社会关系对体重相关变量的影响。多项逻辑回归结果表明，相对状态确实是感知状态的重要预测因子，而感知状态是体重目标的重要预测因子。我们还解决了实际体重状况与社会边缘化（以朋友数量衡量）之间的因果关系问题，并表明肥胖在时间上先于社会边缘化，而不是相反。这证实了肥胖导致社会边缘化而不是相反的假设。友谊网络的属性可以为对抗肥胖的有效干预措施提供新的见解，因为青少年友谊为体重相关行为提供了重要的社会背景。