The role of emotion regulation in childhood obesity: implications for prevention and treatment

Abstract

Stress and negative emotions pose a major threat to public health, by increasing the risk of obesity. Since the management process for emotions (emotion regulation; ER) is developed in childhood, we present a novel conceptual framework model for the role of ER in the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. A narrative review of the literature by electronic database search (MEDLINE, Web of Knowledge and Scopus) was conducted of observational and interventional/experimental literature on ER and obesity and the underlying concepts. We also present an overview of ER intervention techniques. Our model indicates that childhood ER is a link between stress and obesity. Stress along with ineffective ER leads to abnormal cortisol patterns, emotional eating, sedentary lifestyle, reduction of physical activity, and sleep problems. Simultaneously, a healthy lifestyle could show benefits on ER and in developing adaptive ER strategies. In the development of obesity and ER, parents also play a role. By contrast, effective ER skills decrease obesity-related unhealthy behaviour and enhance protective factors, which boost health. The literature contains some observational studies of children but very few intervention studies, most of which are pilot or on-going studies. In conclusion, encouraging effective ER could be a useful new approach for combating and treating childhood obesity. Future ER intervention studies are needed to confirm the validity of this model in children.

Early life adversity and health‐risk behaviors: proposed psychological and neural mechanisms

“…Emotion regulation plays a central role in obesity. 137 In toddlers, poor emotion regulation skills prospectively predict higher BMI, even after controlling for baseline BMI and behavioral problems. 138 This relationship may be explained by emotional eating to cope with negative emotions.…”

Children's stress‐related reports and stress biomarkers interact in their association with metabolic syndrome risk

“…From a public health perspective, stressful events are difficult to avoid, but the prevention of a chronic physiological stress reaction might be beneficial in maintaining optimal metabolic health. One such opportunity is by incorporating education on stress management and emotion regulation in prevention programmes and in school curricula (Aparicio, Canals, Arija, De Henauw, & Michels, ). After all, good stress and emotion coping might prevent chronic cortisol increases and stress‐related behaviours such as emotional eating.…”

Emotion regulation training in the treatment of obesity in young adolescents: protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…1: emotional distress) [37,70,86]. Emotional distress is associated with psychopathology [39,83,97], medical diseases [125,127,129], and obesity [8,42,58,79,101,123].…”

“…Childhood obesity: growing prevalence, multiple consequences, and modest treatment success Recent prevalence rates collected by the World Health Organization [150] revealed that, worldwide, 18% of the school-aged children and adolescents (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19) years old) are diagnosed with overweight and 8% with obesity. These prevalence rates have tripled since 1975, demonstrating the growing problem of pediatric overweight and obesity [150].…”

“…Herein, a psychological perspective recently has gained attention. An increasing number of studies point to "stress" as an important factor in the development and maintenance of childhood obesity [8,74,79,110]. For example, families with an obese child experience more stress [102], and daily hassles seem to have a significant impact on children's eating behavior [44,110].…”