Personality and overweight in 6-12-year-old children

S E Hampson; M E Vollrath; P B Júlíusson

doi:10.1111/ijpo.12014

Personality and overweight in 6-12-year-old children

Pediatr Obes. 2015 Oct;10(5):e5-7. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.12014. Epub 2015 Feb 27.

Authors

S E Hampson¹, M E Vollrath^{2

3}, P B Júlíusson^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Oregon Research Institute, Eugene, OR, USA.
² Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Department of Psychosomatics and Health Behavior, Division of Mental Health, Oslo, Norway.
³ Psychological Institute, University of Norway, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.

Abstract

Background: Personality may be an important yet understudied influence on childhood obesity.

Objective: We investigated the association between children's personality traits and weight status in a sample of 1533 6-12 year olds.

Methods: Mothers rated their child's personality using the Norwegian Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children, and reported on their child's height and weight.

Results: Relative to their normal weight peers, overweight children were rated lower on energy, optimism, compliance, concentration, perseverance, and self-confidence, and higher on egocentricity, irritability, and anxiety.

Conclusions: These findings suggest possible mechanisms to investigate in future research relating personality to childhood obesity.

Keywords: Behavioural mechanisms; children; obesity; personality traits.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adult
Anxiety
Body Mass Index
Body Weight
Child
Child Behavior / psychology*
Feeding Behavior / psychology*
Female
Humans
Male
Mothers* / psychology
Norway
Pediatric Obesity / psychology*
Personality

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding