Psychological Prophylaxis of Eхogenous Constitutional Obesity of Adolescents with Social Psychological Factors, Taken into Account

Abstract

Aim - psychological prevention of development of exogenous-constitutional obesity on the basis of the definition of early diagnostic socio-psychological criteria for the risk of obesity in adolescents. Materials and methods. The study was conducted on the basis of the Department of Endocrinology of the Children's City Clinical Hospital No. 1. The sample of the study consisted of 40 adolescents, 20 of whom had a diagnosis of "Exogenous-constitutional obesity", grade 3-4 (the clinical group), while the other 20 adolescents had normal weight (the control group). The following psychodiagnostic methods were used in the study: the test of character accentuation by K. Leonhard, S. Schmieschek, the Dutch food questionnaire, the test "Adolescents about Parents" (ADOR), the method of directed retrospective analysis on "My Relations with Food" topic by V.I. Shebanova. Results. Adolescents with obesity are characterized by high sensitivity, empathy, a tendency for prolonged experience of grievances, suspicion, mistrust, emotional discomfort. In the families of adolescents with obesity, there is a cult of food, which negatively affects the formation of eating behavior. Adolescents with obesity are prone to emotionally dependent eating behavior. The social-psychological risk factors for obesity in adolescents are stuck and emotional character accentuations, low level of restrictive eating behavior, lack of intimacy with the mother, mother’s hostility and domination. Conclusion. Knowledge of the identified factors allows to predict the risk of obesity in adolescents at the early stage of weight gain and to carry out its timely prevention by correcting the characterological features, parent-child relationships and eating style in the family.

Keywords

• obesity
• eating behavior
• character traits
• child-parent relationships
• prevention