Stress in Your Teen Years Could Put You at Risk For Obesity

We’ve all heard that diet and lifestyle contribute to obesity, but what if there was more to the story? What if you could predict the risk of obesity based on what happened in one’s adolescence?

According to a recent study, life stressors during formative years — when kids are of middle and high school age — may be linked to adult obesity. Habits that people develop or very challenging stressors they encounter in adolescence in grades seven through 12 affect their health for years.

Michael Stanton, Cal State East Bay professor of public health, and his co-author Antwan Jones, professor of sociology, epidemiology and public policy at George Washington University, were interested in two sources of stress — interpersonal, for example, being a victim of a crime or the death of close relationships, and financial, which can include parents being unemployed. 

“More social stress among the young people was linked to greater weight gain when they became adults,” said Stanton.

Stanton and Jones also measured positive and protective factors. These include social support — how much they felt that parents, teachers, other adults, and friends care about them — and also social cohesion in terms of how supportive their neighbors are.

“Taking all our stress variables and demographic factors into account, we found that interpersonal stressors were directly linked to body mass index 14 years later,” said Stanton. Even more interesting, social support from friends and family and supportive neighborhoods counteracted the negative effect of stressors in adolescence.” 

According to Stanton and Jones, for young people, having a large, compassionate, and caring social network can be helpful in navigating times of crisis and can promote good psychological and physical health.

“Future research is needed, but it could be that targeted social interventions, such as greater time spent with friends and family or joining a local soccer club, at the time of intense interpersonal stressors could protect individuals from developing obesity and other health risks down the road,” said Stanton. “Even sessions with a psychotherapist could act as an interpersonal support system in times of hardship.”

The study did not find a relationship between financial stressors in adolescence and BMI in adulthood.