Developmental Psychology, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9104, 6500, HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Healthy Society, Knowledge Centre for Health and Social work, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, The Netherlands.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Apr 7;21(1):675. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10721-z.
Growing evidence suggests that maternal mental health issues are associated with (young) children's weight outcomes. However, most studies have been limited by cross-sectional designs and have been aimed at (younger) children. The current prospective study focuses on the link between maternal mental health (i.e., psychological stress and depressive symptoms) and adolescents' zBMI development.
The participants in the present study were part of wave 1 and 2 of a longitudinal study on Dutch adolescents' and their parents' health behavior. Adolescents (aged 10-14) and their parents were recruited through six secondary schools in the South and the East of the Netherlands. For this study, we only included biological mothers and their adolescent children who participated in both waves, with data on the main measures in both waves, leaving a final sample of 336 biological mother-child dyads. Adolescents height and weight were measured, and both parents and adolescents filled in validated questionnaires on perceived stress and depressive symptoms and answered additional questions concerning domain-specific stress. Regression analyses were performed in R to examine longitudinal links between maternal stress and depressive symptoms at baseline (T1) and adolescents' BMI standard deviation scores (zBMI) 6 months later (T2), corrected for baseline zBMI and covariates.
Maternal general perceived stress (β = .20, p = .002) at T1 preceded higher adolescents' zBMI at T2, after controlling for baseline zBMI and other covariates, whereas maternal depressive symptoms at T1 (β = -.05, p = .44) and other domain-specific stress did not (maternal financial stress, maternal stress at work, maternal stress at home). Additionally, lower educational level among adolescents (β = .16, p = .001) and adolescent depressive symptoms (β = .16, p = .001) was associated with a higher zBMI at T2.
Results suggest that maternal general stress, but not depressive symptoms, may influence adolescents' weight development. Our findings warrant future investigation on whether and how general stress among mothers may predict weight increases of their adolescent offspring.
越来越多的证据表明，产妇心理健康问题与（幼儿）儿童的体重结果有关。然而，大多数研究受到横断面设计的限制，并且针对（年幼的）儿童。目前的前瞻性研究侧重于产妇心理健康（即心理压力和抑郁症状）与青少年 zBMI 发育之间的联系。
本研究的参与者是一项关于荷兰青少年及其父母健康行为的纵向研究的第 1 波和第 2 波的一部分。青少年（年龄在 10-14 岁）及其父母通过荷兰南部和东部的六所中学招募。本研究仅包括在两波中都参与、在两波中都有主要测量数据的亲生母亲及其青少年子女，最终样本为 336 对亲生母子对。青少年的身高和体重均进行了测量，父母和青少年均填写了经过验证的关于感知压力和抑郁症状的问卷，并回答了关于特定领域压力的其他问题。使用 R 进行回归分析，以检查基线（T1）时母体应激和抑郁症状与青少年 BMI 标准差评分（zBMI）之间的纵向联系6 个月后（T2），校正了基线 zBMI 和协变量。
在控制基线 zBMI 和其他协变量后，T1 时母亲的一般感知压力（β=0.20，p=0.002）先于 T2 时青少年 zBMI 的升高，而 T1 时母亲的抑郁症状（β=0.05，p=0.44）和其他特定领域的压力则没有（母亲的经济压力、母亲在工作中的压力、母亲在家中的压力）。此外，青少年的受教育程度较低（β=0.16，p=0.001）和青少年抑郁症状（β=0.16，p=0.001）与 T2 时 zBMI 较高相关。
结果表明，母亲的一般压力，而不是抑郁症状，可能会影响青少年的体重发育。我们的研究结果表明，有必要进一步研究母亲的一般压力是否以及如何预测其青少年后代体重的增加。
