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Weight-related problems, including obesity, eating disorders, and disordered eating, are major public health problems in adolescents. The identification of shared risk and protective factors for these problems can guide the development of relevant interventions to a broad spectrum of weight-related problems. This paper examines the prevalence and co-occurrence of overweight, binge eating, and extreme weight-control behaviors (vomiting, diet pills, laxatives, and diuretics) in adolescents and identifies shared risk and protective factors from within the socioenvironmental, personal, and behavioral domains for these three adverse weight-related outcomes.

Data were collected at Time 1 (1998–1999) and Time 2 (2003–2004) on 2516 adolescents participating in Project EAT (Eating Among Teens). Data were analyzed in 2006–2007.

Weight-related problems were identified in …