Aim: The aims of this study were (1) to analyse the influence of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and parental overweight status (POS) and socioeconomic status (SES) on abdominal obesity.

Subjects and methods: This study was comprised of 779 adolescents (12–18 years). Waist–height ratio (WHtR), 20 m shuttle-run test to ascertain CRF, POS according to World Health Organization recommendations and SES of parents using level of education were analysed.

Results: Using WHtR, the prevalence of abdominal obesity was 21.3% (23.5% girls and 17.9% boys; p = 0.062). Regardless of gender, participants who belonged to the WHtR risk group had significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower CRF scores than the WHtR non-risk group; 84.4% of girls who belonged to the WHtR risk group had one or two overweight parents (p ≤ 0.05). Boys with low CRF (OR: 6.43; CI: 3.33–12.39) were more likely to belong to the WHtR risk group compared with their lean peers. Girls with low CRF (OR: 1.78; CI: 1.14–2.78) and with at least one overweight parent (OR: 2.50; CI: 1.07–5.85) or two overweight parents (OR: 4.90; CI: 2.08–11.54) were associated with the risk of abdominal obesity.

Conclusion: This study highlights the influence of adolescents' family on abdominal obesity, especially in girls. Further, the data suggested that low CRF was a strong predictor of risk values of abdominal obesity in adolescence.