Carey W B, Hegvik R L, McDevitt S C
Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia.
J Dev Behav Pediatr. 1988 Aug;9(4):194-8.
Studies of the perplexing problem of childhood obesity have considered etiological factors in the child and environment, but have largely ignored the child's temperament or style of interaction with the environment. In this report, a significant relationship is demonstrated between temperament and both rapid weight gain and actual obesity in middle childhood. In a longitudinal study of 138 children, weight-for-height percentile gains between 4 to 5 years and 8 to 9 years were significantly correlated with eight of nine difficult temperament characteristics and with a cumulative "index of difficulty." A separate cross-sectional study of 21 obese (greater than or equal to the 95th percentile weight for height) 6- to 12-year-old children found them to be significantly less rhythmical/predictable and lower in persistence/attention span than matched controls. These normal behavioral style characteristics, interacting with metabolic, dietary, and environmental factors, may predispose some children to inappropriate eating habits or make it harder to maintain a dietary plan to remedy the problem.
关于儿童肥胖这一复杂问题的研究已经考虑了儿童自身及环境中的病因因素，但很大程度上忽略了儿童的气质或其与环境的互动方式。在本报告中，证实了气质与童年中期体重快速增加及实际肥胖之间存在显著关联。在一项对138名儿童的纵向研究中，4至5岁和8至9岁之间身高体重百分位数的增加与九种难养型气质特征中的八种以及累积“难养指数”显著相关。另一项针对21名6至12岁肥胖儿童（身高体重高于或等于第95百分位数）的横断面研究发现，与匹配的对照组相比，他们的行为节奏/可预测性明显较低，坚持性/注意力持续时间也较短。这些正常的行为风格特征，与代谢、饮食和环境因素相互作用，可能使一些儿童易形成不良饮食习惯，或使维持解决该问题的饮食计划变得更加困难。
