Table 4.

Variables Capturing Potential Mechanisms for Internalizing/Externalizing Behaviors and Unhealthy Lifestyles That May Explain the Correlation Between Parental Incarceration and Body Mass Index/Obesity, National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, 1994–2008

Measure	Descriptiona	Mechanism
Stressful life events	Stressful life events experienced by the respondent in the 12 months prior to the interview. As a guideline, we used the stressful life events list found in the reports by Adkins et al. (47) and Boardman and Alexander (48) and identified the following occurrences of stress: ran away from home, was expelled from school, had an unwanted pregnancy, had an abortion, gave baby up for adoption, cohabitation ended, romantic relationship ended, marriage ended, nonromantic sexual relationship ended, diagnosed with STD, attempted suicide, threatened someone, shot or stabbed someone, injured someone in a fight, was discharged from the military, entered the military, was evicted from home, utility service was cut off, receiving welfare, involuntarily cut from welfare, juvenile conviction or detention, adult conviction, adult jail time, had a miscarriage, biologic father died, biologic mother died, parental figure died, romantic relationship partner died, spouse died, baby died, friend or family member committed suicide, baby had medical problems, relationship abuse (threatening, insulting, swearing, throwing things, pushing), was jumped, saw violence, was shot or stabbed, had sex for money, was threatened, mother or father is on public assistance, was raped, was injured in a fight, skipped needed health care.	As recent ethnographic work suggests, parental incarceration is associated with a number of long-term stressful life events, and parental incarceration may act as a “marker” for experiencing many stressful life events, which would explain the association between parental incarceration and obesity/BMI.
Depression	Five-item depression scale based on that of Perreira et al. (49) for Add Health measures found to be reliable and consistent across racial/ethnic groups. The questions assess the respondent’s frequency of particular emotions during the past week, including being happy/satisfied with life,b feeling depressed, being unable to shake off the blues, being happy, and feeling sad. The adjusted Cronbach’s alpha was 0.80 at wave I, 0.79 at wave II, 0.85 at wave III, and 0.84 at wave IV. Psychiatric diagnoses are not available in Add Health.	With the strong correlation between depression and obesity/BMI among women, depression may be higher among females who have experienced parental incarceration.
Suicidal thoughts	Self-report at each wave indicating whether the respondent considered suicide or had suicidal thoughts in the 12 months prior to the interviews.	Suicidal thoughts are used as a measure of internalizing behaviors.
Average no. of sedentary behaviors per day	Average number of hours per day that the respondent was engaged in sedentary behaviors. At waves I–III, these behaviors were the sum of hours spent watching television, playing computer or video games, and watching videos. At wave IV, these measures were the number of hours spent watching television, playing video or computer games, and time spent at a computer.	Measures whether increased BMI associated with parental incarceration may result from increased sedentary behaviors.
Fast food consumption	Average number of days per week that the respondent ate fast food at wave IV interviews.	Measure capturing whether children of incarcerated parents may cope with stressors through unhealthy dietary patterns.
Consumption of soft drinks	Indicator variable for whether the respondent had consumed soft drinks in the week prior to the interview at wave IV.	Measure capturing whether children of incarcerated parents may cope with stressors through unhealthy dietary patterns.

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; STD, sexually transmitted disease.

^aReference 47: Adkins et al. (Soc Forces. 2009;88(1):31–60); reference 48: Boardman and Alexander (Soc Sci Med. 2011;72(10):1659–1666); reference 49: Perreira et al. (Soc Forces. 2005;83(4):1567–1601).

^bAt waves I, III, and IV, respondents were asked how happy about life they were during the last 7 days. Unfortunately, this item was not queried at wave II, so we substituted a similar measure that asked how satisfied respondents felt about their lives. The mean and standard deviation of this substituted variable are similar to those for the “happy” items used at the other 3 waves and yielded results that are comparable to those from other waves in cross-sectional analyses.