Racial/Ethnic Differences in Health Behaviors and Its Roles on Depressive Symptoms among Young Female Adults

Jaewon Lee and Jisuk Seon
Additional contact information
Jaewon Lee: Department of Social Welfare, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea
Jisuk Seon: Department of Social Welfare, Kyungnam University, Changwon 51767, Korea

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-12

Abstract: This study explores the role of health behaviors on depressive symptoms across young adult females and differences in the relationship across race/ethnicity. The data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child and Young Adult. Seven hundred and seven non-Hispanic White females, 592 African American females, and 349 Hispanic females were selected. Multiple linear regression and logistic regression analyses were conducted. African American and Hispanic females were more likely to eat fast food than non-Hispanic Whites. African Americans reported that they ate fruit less frequently in comparison with non-Hispanic Whites. Fruit intake was related to lower levels of depressive symptoms. Hispanics moderated the association between fruit intake and depressive symptoms. Females should be encouraged to eat more fruit during young adulthood in order to diminish the likelihood of depressive symptoms. In addition, strategies for promoting healthy behaviors should consider the varied effects of race/ethnicity on depressive symptoms among young female adults.

Keywords: health behaviors; food intake; depressive symptoms; female; racial/ethnic disparities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7202/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7202/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:7202-:d:422748

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().