Overweight or obesity associations with physical aggression in children and adolescents

Being overweight or obese (overweight/obesity) or physically aggressive in childhood and adolescence can have lifelong consequences, hence are important public health problems. Identifying a relationship between these problems would assist in understanding their developmental origins. The present pa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of behavioral development 2018-01, Vol.42 (1), p.116-131
Main Authors: Tso, Melissa KW, Bosco, Rowland, Toumbourou, John W, Guadagno, Belinda L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent girls
Aggressiveness
Body mass index
Childhood obesity
Confidence intervals
Developmental processes
Health problems
Meta-analysis
Obesity
Public health
Teenagers
Underweight
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Summary:Being overweight or obese (overweight/obesity) or physically aggressive in childhood and adolescence can have lifelong consequences, hence are important public health problems. Identifying a relationship between these problems would assist in understanding their developmental origins. The present paper sought to review previous studies and use meta-analysis to evaluate whether there is evidence of a relationship between overweight/obesity and physical aggression in children and adolescents. A systematic search of studies that reported the effect of overweight/obesity (in the form of body mass index) on physical aggression was conducted. A total of 23 studies were identified, representing data from 255,377 participants. The results indicate that children and adolescents who are overweight or obese are more physically aggressive than their normal-weight or underweight peers. The average weighted standardized mean difference (the effect size) for aggression in overweight and obese children and adolescents compared to others was found to be 0.27 (95% confidence interval [CI95]: .17–.37), and was significant (p
ISSN:0165-0254
DOI:10.1177/0165025417690265