Research Article TheAssociationbetweenAdolescent’sWeightPerceptionand HealthBehaviors:AnalysisofNationalHealthandNutrition ExaminationSurveyData,2011–2014 FurongXu , 1 MaryL.Greaney, 2 StevenA.Cohen, 2 DeborahRiebe, 1 andGeoffreyW.Greene 3 1 Department of Kinesiology, University of Rhode Island, Independence Square II, Kingston, RI 02881, USA 2 Health Studies Program, University of Rhode Island, Independence Square II, Kingston, RI 02881, USA 3 Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Fogarty Hall, Kingston, RI 02881, USA CorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoFurongXu;fxu2007@uri.edu Received 8 November 2017; Revised 21 March 2018; Accepted 2 April 2018; Published 23 April 2018 AcademicEditor:DavidH.St-Pierre Copyright©2018FurongXuetal.isisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. eassociationbetweenadolescents’weightperceptionandtheirphysicalactivity(PA)andsedentarybehaviorsremainsunclear. erefore,theseassociationswereexploredusingdatafrom2438adolescentsaged12–19yearswhoparticipatedintheNational Health and Nutrition Examination 2011–2014 Survey. Respondents reported weight perception, and their weight perception accuracywasdeterminedbyexaminingwhetherthemeasuredweightandperceivedweightwereconcordant.Respondentsalso reportedsedentarytime(sittingtimeandscreentime),PA,andintentiontoloseweight.Linearandlogisticregressionmodels were conducted to determine whether adolescents’ PA, sedentary behaviors, and weight loss intention differed by weight perception and weight perception accuracy adjusted for demographic variables accounting for complex sampling. About one- quarter(21.4%)oftherespondentshadobesity.Forrespondentswhoperceivedthemselvesasbeingoverweight/fat,despitegreater weight loss intention, males reported more sitting time (512.7 ± 16.3 versus 474.1 ± 10.2 minutes/day, p < 0.05) and females reportedlessPA(48.7 ± 5.0versus64.6 ± 3.3minutes/day, p < 0.05)thanrespondentswhoperceivedthemselvesasbeingnormal weight.Similarpatternswereobservedforweightperceptionaccuracyamongindividualswithobesity.Studyresultsshowthat perceivingoneselfasbeingoverweight/fatregardlessofaccuracywasassociatedwithmoresedentarytimeformalesorlessPAfor females despite higher weight loss intention. 1.Introduction With 20.5% of adolescents aged 12–19 years in the United States(US)classifiedasbeingoverweightorhavingobesity, excess weight is epidemic and a pressing public health challenge[1].Obesity-relatedhealthcarecostsareincreasing andwilllikelyburdentheUShealthcaresysteminthefuture [2].Adolescentswithobesityaremorelikelytohaveobesity as adults and as a result be at increased risk for chronic diseases[3,4].Effortstoreduceadolescentobesityhavehad limited success [1]. Inadequate physical activity (PA) con- tributes to obesity: adolescents who are obese are less physically active and more sedentary than their normal weight counterparts [5]. e median self-reported minutes of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for adolescents with obesity is lower than that for their nonoverweight counterparts (24.8 minutes/day versus 37.1minutes/day)andiswellbelowtherecommended60 minutes/day of MVPA [5]. Conversely, adolescents with obesity spent on average 43 minutes more per day sitting than their nonoverweight counterparts [5]. Weight perception, the way in which individuals view their weight, influences individuals’ weight concerns [6, 7]. Although weight perception can be positive and may mo- tivateweightcontrol[8],negativeweightperceptioncanlead to extreme weight loss methods [6, 7]. us, weight per- ceptionshouldbeconsideredwhendevelopingprogramsto combat obesity. e literature examining the association Hindawi Journal of Obesity Volume 2018, Article ID 3547856, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3547856