Today, 1 out of 3 children and teens in the U.S. is overweight. Obesity of children can cause serious health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and asthma. Childhood obesity also takes an emotional toll. As not only adults but also young children prefer slim and healthy shape to fatty and heavy shape, overweight and obese children are sometimes teased or bullied from their peer group only because their heavy body. And it is likely to lead to low self esteem, negative self image, lack of confident, and depression.
Little girls from troubled homes are more likely to be obese at age 5 than girls from happier ones, new research from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study shows.
However same association between boys’ weight and tough family situations were not found.
Researchers studied more than 1,600 preschoolers who are born to mostly low-income, single-mother families. About half were black, 27 percent were Hispanic and 22 percent were white.
They asked their mother about six factors to cause stress, when the children were between age1 to 3 years: domestic violence, depression, drug abuse, housing insecurity, food insecurity and whether the child’s father was in prison. And they measured their weight and height when they became 5 years old.
According to the result of the research, if their mother experienced 2 or more stress factors when their daughter was 1 year old, they are twice as likely to be obese when they become 5 years old. If their mother experienced 2 or more stress factors when their daughter was 3 years old, they were also twice as likely to be overweight.
But Shakira Suglia, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at Columbia University, in New York City, who led this study, noted, "For families who are experiencing all these stresses, obesity is one more thing and may not be as high a priority as other things."
There are several explanations the connection of stress and obesity, said Christina Bethell, a professor in the pediatrics department at Oregon Health & Science University and director of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative.
She said, “The connection between stress, health behaviors and obesity is profound and many say that to deal with obesity, first we have to deal with psychosocial issues and stress."
There is a direct connection of stress and obesity, in that children who suffer from family difficulties and troubles are more likely to eat junk foods as adults who suffer from stress turn to comfort food. And there are also guess indirect connections of them. Mothers who are stressed out may not be able to provide emotional supports to their children.They cannot help putting kids in front of the TV or feeding them junk food, as long as the problems are not solved. Moreover, the food insecurity, in other words economic instability can lead them consume innutritious fatty or sugary foods instead of fresh, nutritious foods. Before this study conducted, the association of stress caused by domestic violence and poverty and risk of cardiovascular disease in adult was found through prior research.
But there still remains question, why boys’ obesity was not associated with family problems.
Suglia explained, "It's possible that girls internalize things differently. Other studies have shown they do act differently in being exposed to stress. Girls tend to internalize more, and to have more depressive behaviors."
