Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 153, Issue 6, December 2008, Pages 839-844.e3
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original article
Psychological Stress and Obesity

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2008.06.016Get rights and content

Objective

To examine whether there is a relationship between psychological stress in the family and obesity in 5- to 6-year-old children.

Study design

A total of 7443 Swedish families reported on psychological stress across 4 domains as part of the prospective All Babies in Southeast Sweden-project (ABIS). Domains assessed included serious life events, parenting stress, lack of social support, and parental worries. These variables were summarized in cross-sectional and longitudinal composite measures of psychological stress. Logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios for childhood obesity for psychological stress.

Results

A total of 4.2% of the children were obese according to age-adjusted international standards. Children from families that reported stress in at least 2 of the 4 domains assessed had significantly higher adjusted odds ratios (OR) for obesity, both cross-sectionally (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.3-3.5; P < .01) and longitudinally (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.3-5.4, P < .01).

Conclusion

Psychological stress in the family may be a contributing factor for childhood obesity. This finding underscores how important it is to give children with obesity and their families psychological and social support in addition to recommendations about changing life style.

Section snippets

Participants and Procedure

This study was part of the All Babies in Southeast Sweden-project (ABIS), which aims to study causes of type 1 diabetes mellitus by following a general population cohort from birth to adolescence. The inclusion criterion for ABIS was that the child was born in southeast Sweden between October 1997 and October 1999. During this time, about 21 700 children were born in this region and 16 070 mothers of these children filled out a questionnaire at birth. Subsequently, parents completed

Results

The children were between 4.5 and 6.5 years old when the age 5 questionnaires were completed. A total of 52.1% were boys, and 47.9% were girls. Data on the child's age, sex, weight, and height were available for 6733 children, and 4.2% (n = 282) of the children were obese.

Parents reported having experienced a serious life event at age 2 in 23.9% (n = 1444) and at age 5 in 36.3% (n = 2670) of the families.

Parenting stress showed a reliability at age 2 of α = 0.89 (34 items), and at age 5 of α =

Discussion

Our results suggest a relationship between psychological stress in the family and obesity in children. In particular, significantly higher ORs for the composite measures of psychological stress suggest a relationship between psychological stress in the family and childhood obesity.

Serious life events were related to childhood obesity in this study when background factors were taken into account. Serious life events, such as death of a relative, divorce, or unemployment, have been shown to have

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