Self -efficacy in adolescent girls at risk for overweight during an obesity prevention program

This study evaluated social, eating, and general self-efficacy in participants in an obesity prevention program. Participants were 38 adolescent girls, at risk for adult obesity by virtue of their current weight (BMI between the 75th and 97th percentile), who were randomly assigned to a group interpersonal psychotherapy for the prevention of excessive weight gain (IPT-WG) or to a health education (HE) program. Social and eating self-efficacy beliefs were associated with interpersonal functioning and eating behaviors, respectively, and positively correlated with general self-efficacy. Teens with loss of control eating (LOC) described significantly lower eating self-efficacy than those without LOC. Adolescents in IPT-WG experienced a non-significantly smaller increase in BMI than those in HE at post-treatment. By 6-month follow-up, there were no significant differences in BMI change, social, eating or general self-efficacy between the two groups. The whole sample improved in eating self-efficacy.