Anwar, MD Mahabub Ul2015-10-022015-10-022014-05http://hdl.handle.net/10125/100288Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2014.Includes bibliographical references.Obesity in the United States has increased dramatically, and has become a public health crisis. Studies documented that healthy lifestyle, including healthy eating, increased physical activity (PA), and decreased sedentary behavior (SB), can lower the risk of becoming obese, as well as developing obesity related diseases. In order to explore the changing pattern of PA and fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) from childhood to adolescence, as well as to investigate how childhood PA, FVC, and SB influence adolescence PA, FVC, and SB, this dissertation utilized the data of Fun 5 study, which is a longitudinal cohort study. Two cohorts of data were utilized for this dissertation, where students were followed up for five years. Using piecewise growth mixer modeling, and random coefficient model, paper one of this dissertation did not find any significant pattern of PA change from childhood to adolescent. Structural equation modeling revealed the applicability of theory of planned behavior (TPB) for childhood PA. Findings also documented that self confidence is the strongest variable to influence childhood PA followed by attitudes. Paper one did not find any impact of childhood and adolescent PA on adolescent obesity. Using piecewise growth mixer modeling, and random coefficient model, paper two revealed a declining pattern of FVC from childhood to adolescent. Structural equation modeling revealed the applicability of TPB for childhood FVC. Findings also documented that self confidence is the strongest variable to influence childhood FVC followed by subjective norms. Paper two did not find any impact of childhood and adolescent FVC on adolescent obesity. Using structural equation modeling, paper three of this dissertation revealed that all three childhood behaviors (PA, FVC, SB) predicted the same adolescent behaviors, which implies that these behaviors develop at childhood and continue to adolescence. Findings suggest to target early childhood for intervention activities regarding increasing PA, FVC, and decreasing SB, as well as target children's self confidence, subjective norms, and attitudes towards PA and FVC. Findings also recommend further studies to explore the change of obesity related behaviors from childhood to adolescent, as well as the predictive ability of these behaviors to adolescent obesity.engAll UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.ObesityThesis