Emotion Identification in Preschool and Early Adolescent Body Mass Index: Exploring the Roles of Depressive Symptoms and Peer Relations

Association of Peer Network with Childhood Obesity in DECIDE-Children Program

Some studies have found associations between the peer network and childhood obesity. The present study aimed to analyze the association of the peer network with obesity-related cognition, behaviors and adiposity indicators, and explore whether peer network influences the effect of a childhood-obesity intervention. Based on DECIDE-Children, 1392 children's friendship nominations within the class were collected and peer network indicators including the network size, network density, and in- and out-degree centrality were calculated. The linear mixed model was used to analyze the association between peer network indicators and children's cognition, behaviors and adiposity indicators (body mass index (BMI), BMI z score, the prevalence of overweight and obesity). Children with a higher in-degree centrality had 34.4% (95%CI: 17.4% to 48.1%) lower risk of overweight or obesity. The baseline degree centrality was inversely associated with the BMI and BMI z score at the end of the trial. For each unit increase in in-degree centrality at baseline, the BMI at the end of the trial decreased by 0.047 (95%CI: 0.015 to 0.080), and the BMI z score decreased by 0.015 (95%CI: 0.003 to 0.028). Children's popularity reflected by centrality in their peer network was associated with cognition, behaviors, and adiposity indicators. Future childhood-obesity intervention research could pay more attention to socially inactive children.

Sad, Sadder, Saddest: Recognition of Sad and Happy Emotional Intensity, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Depressive Symptoms in Preschoolers

Adverse childhood experiences (ACES) have repeatedly been associated with depression. The ability to differentiate emotional intensity is a protective factor for psychopathology and in the context of life stressors, poor negative emotion differentiation (ED) is associated with depressive symptoms. However, little is known about whether the ability to recognize negative emotional intensity, a theorized developmental prerequisite of ED, influences the relationship between ACES and depressive symptoms in early childhood. The current study examined the interactive effects of ACES, the ability to recognize emotional intensity and depressive symptoms in 249 preschoolers enriched for depression. Findings demonstrated that when experiencing ACES, sad (not happy) emotion recognition was associated with elevated depressive symptoms. Specifically, when facing multiple ACEs, preschoolers with poor and moderate ability to recognize sad emotional intensity exhibited elevated depressive symptoms. Findings demonstrate that when experiencing elevated ACES, sad emotion recognition may be a protective factor for depression in early childhood.

The Association between Obesity and Depression among Children and the Role of Family: A Systematic Review

One of the most critical factors that affects or leads to obesity is depression. However, another point of view is that obesity leads to depression. This systematic review estimates evidence arising from observational and systematic studies concerning the association between obesity and depression in children and adolescents. Moreover, the role of the family environment is investigated in this review. A systematic literature search was performed for research conducted between 2014 and 2021 on PubMed. The basic inclusion criteria were the language, study issue and type, and age of the participants. Studies that examined non-healthy populations, or were not related, or with no access were excluded. Titles and abstracts were screened independently, and full-text manuscripts meeting inclusion criteria were extracted. Finally, twenty-seven studies were retained. Most of them highlighted a positive association between obesity and depression. However, it is not clear whether obesity leads to depression or vice versa. Our review also revealed that the role of the family in this association has not been well studied and understood, since only one study addressed the issue. The evidence from our review emphasizes major public health issues; therefore, appropriate health policies should be developed. Moreover, additional research is required to fully understand the role of the family environment in the association between depression and obesity in childhood.