Purpose: To assess whether there are individual, familial, academic or social differences between youths being overweight, obese or normal weight.
Methods: Data were drawn from the GenerationFRee study, a cross-sectional survey including 5179 youths aged 15-24. Using Cole’s cut-off points of body mass index (BMI), individuals were divided into normal weight (NW; N=4291), overweight (OW; N=646), and obese (OB, N=242). Groups were compared on age, gender, emotional wellbeing, self-reported health status, family structure, relationship with father and with mother, life satisfaction, socioeconomic status, pubertal timing, popularity among peers, easiness to make friends, at risk for eating disorders, parents nationality, own nationality, and academic track. All variables at the bivariate level were included in multinomial logistic regression using NW as the reference category. Results are given as Relative Risk Ratios (RRR) with 95% confidence interval.