Therapist Unlimited Blog

A latest medical research has shown that children with emotional difficulties are at higher risk of becoming obese when they grow up.
The researchers revealed while their findings don’t show that emotional problems like low self esteem, being overly worried or feeling less in control of one’s life in childhood actually cause obesity in adulthood, they are a significant factor, alongside parental BMI, diet and exercise.
The relevant study was undertaken by Andrew Ternouth, David Collier and Barbara Maughan from the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London.
It is said that past studies have shown that people who are overweight or obese also have emotional problems like low self-esteem, but which causes the other is not clear.
To get the data, Ternouth and colleagues examined data from about 6,500 people who were enrolled in the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study when they were 10 years old, at which time their emotional problems, self-perceptions and BMI were assessed.

To keep your children away from obesity better help them emotional problems while growing up.
 

BMI stands for Body Mass Index, the ratio of a person’s weight in kilos to the square of their height in metres.
The participants were assessed again 20 years later, when they reached the age of 30.
The results showed that participants who scored low on self-esteem, and those who had felt less in control of their lives,
and who worried more often as children, were the ones most likely to put on weight as adults 20 years later.
The researchers also found that the link between childhood emotional problems and being overweight or obese in adulthood was slightly stronger in girls than it was in boys.
Based on the result of their research, the researchers concluded the findings are particularly important on a larger scale, as it offer hope in the battle to control the current obesity epidemic.
The researchers suggest that helping children with emotional difficulties like anxiety and low self esteem could improve their chances of being in better physical health as adults.
Moreover, the researchers said the result of their research has showed that intervention should be early, and spotting these issues in childhood could be an important step in combating obesity in adulthood.
The researchers concluded it’s not just up to doctors and health practitioners, but the job of everyone involved in the welfare of children, including parents and teachers.