Maternal stress and depressive symptoms and adolescents’ body mass index: a prospective study

Abstract

Background 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. Methods 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. Results 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. Conclusions 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.

Is the Prospective Link between Parental Stress and Adolescent Snack Intake or Weight Outcome Mediated by Food Parenting Practices?

“…The PSS is a self-report questionnaire, and is a global measure of stress that is easy to use. Many studies confirm its reliability and validity in a diversity of settings and in multiple languages [ 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 ]. The scale measures a person’s evaluation of stressful situations in the previous month of his or her life.…”

“…All adolescents attending the first and second grade and their parents were invited to participate in this study by means of an active parental consent procedure. Further details on the study design can be found elsewhere [ 75 , 76 ].…”

Demographic and mental health assessments in the adolescent brain and cognitive development study: Updates and age-related trajectories

“…The PSS is an accessible and effective metric of perceived stress, and has demonstrated utility in understanding the relationship between stress and a myriad of both behavioral and health endpoints ( Golden-Kreutz and Thornton, 2005 , Robles and Garey, 2016 , Whitehead and Bergeman, 2017 , Barutcu Atas and Aydin Sunbul, 2021 ). In addition to predictive value for outcomes specific to the individual completing the PSS, this metric has also proven useful in understanding the role of parental perceived stress in adolescent-related outcomes ( Slaughter and Hamilton, 2020 , Koning and Vink, 2021 , Tara and Turpyn, 2021 ). The role of caregiver behaviors and caregiver perceived stress are salient influences during adolescence; therefore, a PSS assessment that caregivers complete about their own stress has been added to the collected metrics.…”

A longitudinal study on changes in food parenting practices during COVID-19 and the role of parental well-being

“…Specifically, low parental well-being (i.e., more stress and depressive symptoms) may increase the use of easier and shorter-term coping strategies to manage children's eating behaviors, to acquire and prepare meals, and to provide nutrition explanation or nutrition rules in an authoritative way ( Koning et al, 2021a , Koning et al, 2021b , Koning et al, 2021c ). As such, parental stress and depressive symptoms may impact all three overarching dimensions of food parenting, resulting in more coercive control (e.g., using food to manage child emotions or behaviors), less structure (e.g., setting snacking rules, modeling and creating a healthy environmental structure), and less autonomy support (e.g., teaching the adolescent about nutrition, providing feedback with regard to own eating, and explaining certain eating rules; ( Gevers, Kremers, de Vries, & van Assema, 2014 ; Koning et al, 2021a , Koning et al, 2021b , Koning et al, 2021c ; Vaughn et al, 2016 ). In general, structure and autonomy-supportive forms of food parenting practices are regarded as effective as they are associated with more healthy versus unhealthy child eating and weight outcomes.…”

“…This might have led to increased food parenting challenges. Recent studies among (parents of) adolescents suggest that food parenting practices may also impact food intake and, moreover, the development of disordered eating behaviors in this older age group specifically ( Blaine, Kachurak, Davison, Klabunde, & Fisher, 2017 ; Christensen, 2019 ; Fleary & Ettienne, 2019 ; Koning et al, 2021a , Koning et al, 2021b , Koning et al, 2021c ; Taylor, Ditch, & Hansen, 2018 ). However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no longitudinal studies comparing food parenting practices before and during COVID-19 among parents of adolescents.…”