Bidirectionality and gender differences in emotional disturbance associations with obesity among Taiwanese schoolchildren.
Weight and feelings feed each other in elementary kids, with different faces for boys and girls.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Chiang et al. (2013) gave one survey to Taiwanese elementary students.
They asked about weight and feelings.
They split answers by boys and girls.
What they found
Heavier boys had more trouble making friends.
Heavier girls showed more acting-out behavior.
The link went both ways: feelings added weight, and weight added feelings.
How this fits with other research
Ogundele (2018) says pediatric clinics should screen all kids for emotional problems. Po-Huang shows weight can be the red flag.
Bicer et al. (2013) found over half of Turkish kids with autism were overweight. Po-Huang shows the weight-feeling link also happens in neurotypical Asian kids.
Eussen et al. (2016) saw gender differences in BMI among Special Olympics athletes. Po-Huang finds the same pattern in regular classrooms, so gender matters across groups.
Why it matters
If a boy on your caseload is heavy, probe peer skills. If a girl is heavy, watch for rule-breaking. Track mood and BMI together. Share findings with school nurses so both problems get caught early.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Childhood obesity is associated with psychological problems, but little is known about its association with emotional disturbance (ED) in the educational setting, especially by gender. In the population representative Elementary School Children's Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan 2001-2002 of children aged 6-13 (n=2283), we have considered whether ED is associated with obesity by gender. Schoolchildren were assessed with the modified scale for assessing emotional disturbance questionnaires. For some subscales, boys and girls had ED associations with obesity which were bidirectional. With normal weight as referent and relevant adjustments, the significant ED subscales predictable by obesity were relationship problems (RP) in boys (odds ratio, OR=1.89 with 95% CI: 1.08-3.30) and inappropriate behavior (IB) in girls (OR=2.88: 95% CI: 1.47-5.61). Conversely, with 'no-specific-ED' as referent, obesity was predictable by fully-adjusted specific-EDs in the same subscales, namely RP in boys (OR=1.88 with 95% CI: 1.13-3.13) and IB in girls (OR=3.03: 95% CI: 1.57-5.85). Child obesity prevalence showed no trend with school grade from 1 to 6, but for aggregate ED and most of its subscales the prevalence increased with grade (P for trend <0.01). Thus, there is some dissociation of obesity and ED as judged by their trend presence with school grade. Where obesity and ED occurred together (for inability-to-learn and unhappiness or depression), there were upward trends with grade (P<0.01). There are probably some selected bidirectional pathogenicities for obesity-ED associations with different expression in boys and girls and during elementary education. This provides some policy direction while mechanisms and causality require elucidation.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.06.023