Diet & Health News

Kid’s Emotional Problems And Self-Perceptions Foretell Of Future Weight Gain

September 11, 2009
By J White

Growing up can be emotionally difficult for kids. Given the pressure to meet your boss’s deadlines, and other responsibilities that adults face everyday, being popular in school and other socially rewarding aspects of children’s lives may seem inconsequential to adults now, but it is very important to our children. The type of self-esteem they develop today will shape the person that they will become tomorrow.

In addition to shaping the type of people they grow into as adults, researchers at King’s College London also found that emotional problems they face as kids influence their weight gain as adults.

In their study, the researchers concluded that in childhood emotional problems, low self-esteem and an external locus of control, a psychological term which refers to a person’s belief about what causes the good or bad results in his or her life, predict weight gain into adulthood.

Study Findings

In the study, the researcher tracked and gathered data on 650 students born one week in 1970 beginning at age 10. Their body mass index was measured by a trained nurse when they were 10 years old, and then self-reported 20 years later at the age of 30.

Methods to determine their psychological health involved using surveys filled out by their teachers, and the kids themselves. Teachers were asked to assess the kids emotional difficulties by answering questions with the response of worried, miserable, fearful, or fussy. The kids questionnaires indexed the amount of worrying or nervousness they felt.

The kids also took test that measured their self-esteem, and their perceptions of how much their own destiny was held in their own actions, locus of control.

From their findings, the researchers found that the indicators of childhood emotional problems or self-perceptions related to the amount of weight gained when they were 30. In addition, the associations of some indicators were stronger for women then men. In fact, for the women, emotionality significantly predicted weight gain over this time frame.

In the study as a whole, self-esteem, self-reported worrying, self-reported nervousness, and locus of control all significantly predicted weight gain.

From this data, researchers proposed that measures for prevention of weight gain and obesity for improvement of public health could be counteracted with education. Strategies would involve promoting social and emotional aspects of learning, including the promotion of self-esteem.

The researchers also state that their findings suggest that approaches of this kind may carry positive benefits for children’s physical health as well as for other aspects of their development, and that programs of this kind should be implemented at primary as well as secondary school ages.

Source:
BioMed Central, September 2009

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