The influence of childhood obesity on the development of self-esteem.

Background The consequences of overweight in childhood for physical health have received considerable attention, but relatively little research has examined the mental healer consequences, This article examines longitudinal relationships between body weight and serf-esteem in a nationally representative probability sample of Canadian children, Data and methods The data are from cycles 1, 2 end 3 of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, Logistic regression analysis using weighted data examined whether body weight at baseline predicted self-esteem two and four years later. Results When baseline self-esteem and other potential confounders were taken into account, children who were obese at baseline had almost twice the odds of reporting low self-esteem four years later, compared with children of normal body weight. Ancillary analyses indicated that baseline serf-esteem was not associated with body weight status two or four years later. Interpretation The current childhood obesity epidemic may trigger an increase in the population prevalence of low self-esteem in the future. According to other research, low serf-esteem predicts poor mental health. The current childhood obesity epidemic may increase the prevalence of not only chronic diseases, but also poor mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]