This document discusses various factors associated with childhood overweight and obesity, including sleep habits, academic performance, activity levels, eating rates, and cognitive function. Shorter sleep duration and later bedtimes are linked to higher BMI in children. Overweight children often have poorer math performance and interpersonal skills. Higher infant motor activity predicts lower body size, while rapid infant weight gain is tied to later childhood overweight. Faster eating rates are seen in overweight preschoolers. Certain breakfast foods may positively impact cognition more than others. Maternal influences like postpartum depression and lifestyle can also impact childhood weight.

1. Childhood Overweight
and Obesity
By: Nicole Staniszewski
Cognitive Development
December 5, 2012

2. Associations With Overweight and
Obesity Among Children
 Sleep
 Poor Academic Performance
 Activity Level
 Eating rates
 Cognitive Function
 Maternal Influences

3. Associations Between Sleeping
Habits and BMI
 Obesity has been found to be associated with high rates of sleep
problems in children (Marcus et al., 1996).
 Data was collected among children between the ages of 3 to 18 at
two different times (Time 1: aged 3-12 and Time 2: aged 8-18)
analyzing sleep measures in relation to their overweight/BMI status
(Snell, Adam, and Duncan, 2007).
 Results indicated that sleeping less than 8 hours a night at time 1
correlated with a higher BMI and being overweight at time 2.
Sleeping 10-11 hours a night at time 1 correlated with not being
overweight at time 2.
 Later bedtimes at time 1 predicted a higher BMI and being
overweight at time 2.

4. Differences Between Younger vs.
Older Children’s BMI and Sleep
 Generally, having a later wake time was found to be
associated with a lower BMI.
 However, later bedtimes had a greater effect on
younger children’s (3-8 years old) weight.
 Only sleeping 10-11 hrs. and having a later wake time
were associated with a lower BMI for older children.
 Overall, children who receive more sleep are estimated
to have lower BMIs and rates of being overweight 5
years later.

5. Why may sleep affect BMI
and overweight status?
 Disruption of hormones that regulate metabolism and
appetite.
 This, in turn, may lead to increased hunger and appetite for
carbs (Spiegel, Tasali, Penev, & Van Cauter, 2004).
 Therefore, it’s important to think about the ways in which
children can balance their sleep schedule and body’s
biological needs.

6. Weight Status and Math
Performance
 Studies have shown that obesity is associated with poorer
functioning and that obese children have reported lower
academic performance and future educational goals
(Falkner et al., 2001).
 A study was done from kindergarten entry to fifth grade
assessing children’s math performance in relation to their
weight with interpersonal skills and internalizing behaviors
as an intermediary between the two factors (Gable, Krull,
& Chang, 2012).
 Three groups were assessed: persistently obese, later
onset obesity, and never obese.
 Results indicated that there were significant effects in
first, third, and fifth grade spring for persistently obese
boys and girls.

7. Weight Status and Math
Performance (cont.)
 No significant effects were found for boys in the later
onset group. However, when compared to never
obese boys, boys in the later onset group had
significantly higher ratings for internalizing behaviors
(anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem).
 Further results showed that girls in the never obese
group were viewed by teachers as more
interpersonally skilled (maintaining friendships,
getting along with others, etc.) compared to girls in
the other two groups.
 Overall, children who were never obese didn’t
perform as poorly as those in the other two groups.
 How could we help obese children who feel rejected
by playmates and perform poorly in school?

8. Infant and Early Childhood
Motor Activity
 Physical activity has been an important topic to study for
preventing increases in weight.
 Motor activity has been shown to increase over an infant’s
first year of life by using an actometer or maternal ratings
(Worobey, Vetrini, & Rozo, 2009).
 Rose et. al showed that ratings of movement and activity
predicted body size at 5 months better than the amount of
calories taken in.
 Also, Stettler, Zemel, Kumanyika, and Stallings (2002)
showed that rapid weight gain in the first months after an
infant is born predicts child overweight.

9. How do we measure infant
activity?
 There are confounding variables
when measuring an infant’s motor
activity. For example, when using an
actometer, maternal activity may be
recorded.
 Therefore, this study suggests that
measures of infant activity may not be
accurate and in order to explore infant
activity in terms of weight gain, the
caregiver’s handling of the infant
should also be monitored (Worobey,
Vetrini, and Rozo, 2008).
 How effective is physical activity with
preventing weight gain?

10. Eating Rates of Normal and
Overweight Preschool Children
 Heavy infants increased their consumption more than middle and
lightweight groups when the sweet of the formula was changed.
This suggests that differences exist in styles of eating at birth
among overweight (Drabman et al., 1979).
 Drabman et al., (1979) observed 30 normal and 30 overweight
white preschool children and assessed eating rates (bites per
interval) and other meal behaviors.
 Findings revealed that preschool children who were overweight
had an increased bite rate and fewer chews per bite, with boys
having a higher eating rate than girls.
 Epstein, Parker, McCoy, and McGee (1976) implemented
behavioral weight-control programs to reduce bite rates and thus
amount of food consumed. For example, putting utensils down
between each bite.
 How can we control for eating rates? It is important to think of
other behavioral methods to slow down eating rates from the
preschool age level.

11. Breakfast and Cognitive Function
in Healthy Children
 Taki et al. (2010) states that adequate diet affects cognitive
function and brain development.
 Hoyland, Dye, and Lawton (2009) suggested that eating breakfast
was associated with positive effects on well-nourished children
and their cognitive functioning, such as scholastic performance.
 Therefore, Taki et al. (2010) performed a study to determine if
there was a correlation between breakfast type, gray matter ratio
(GMR) in the brain, and IQ.
 Japanese children of various age groups were used in this study
and divided into rice and bread groups.
 Results indicated that the GMR and IQ of the rice group was
significantly higher than the bread group, but only in the older
groups.

12. What does this mean?
 The major difference between these
two types of foods is the glycemic
index (GI), which measures blood-
glucose fluctuation, and fat content.
Rice is shown to have less GI and fat
content than bread. By having low GI,
glucose supplies are more stable.
 Neurotrophic factors from the brain are
expressed less frequently with a high-
fat diet (Molteni, Barnard, Ying, and
Gomez-Pinilla, 2002).
 Finally, another study showed that a
diet high in nutrients is associated with
higher IQ (Isaacs et al, 2008).
 Therefore, you are what you eat in
many kinds of ways!

13. Maternal Influences of
Childhood Overweight
 Current study examines associations between
maternal postpartum depression and child
overweight.
 Ajslev et al. (2010) states that in the postpartum
period, the mother’s psychological wellbeing
may be a possible determinant of childhood
overweight.
 Surkan et al. (2008) found an increased risk of
overweight children with higher maternal
postnatal distress scores.
 This could be because a depressed mother may
neglect her infant or change feeding routines. If
stress hormones are altered and the mother is
breastfeeding, this may contribute to the infant’s
metabolism and hormonal responses.

14. Maternal Influences (cont.)
 Ajslev et al. (2010) found that maternal postpartum distress
was not a risk factor for a child being overweight at 7 years
old.
 However, the study confirmed other factors associated with
overweight including smoking during pregnancy, high BMI
among mothers and fathers, maternal weight gain during
pregnancy, and certain methods of breastfeeding.
 Since these are confirmed associations and not causalities,
it is important to keep an open mind with assessing maternal
distress and overweight children. For example, since Ajslev
et al. (2010) found that women seemed to be of lower social
status with overweight children, environmental influences
may also be important to consider with a child’s weight.

15. References
 Ajslev, T. A., Andersen, C. S., Ingstrup, K. G., Nohr, E. A., & Sørensen, T. A. (2010). Maternal postpartum
distress and childhood overweight. Plos ONE, 5(6), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011136
 Drabman, R. (1979). Developmental trends in eating rates of normal and overweight preschool children. Child
Development, 50(1), 211-216. doi:10.2307/1129058
 Epstein, L. H.; Parker, L.; McCoy, J. F.; & Mc-Gee, G. Descriptive analysis of eating regulation in obese and
non-obese children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1976, 9, 407-415.
 Falkner, N. H., Neumark-Sztainer, D., Story, M., Jeffery, R. W., Beuhring, T., & Resnick, M. D. (2001). Social,
educational, and psychological correlates of weight status in adolescents. Obesity Research, 9, 32–42.
 Gable, S., Krull, J. L., & Chang, Y. (2012). Boys’ and girls’ weight status and math performance from
kindergarten entry through fifth grade: A mediated analysis. Child Development, 83(5), 1822-1839.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01803.x
 Hoyland A, Dye L, Lawton CL (2009) A systematic review of the effect of breakfast on the cognitive performance
of children and adolescents. Nutrition Research Reviews 22: 220–43.
 Isaacs EB, Gadian DG, Sabatini S, Chong WK, Quinn BT, et al. (2008) The effect of early human diet on
caudate volumes and IQ. Pediatr Res 63: 308–14.

16. References (etc.)
 Marcus, C. L., Curtis, S., Koerner, C. B., Joffe, A., Serwint, J.R., & Loughlin, G. M. (1996). Evaluation of pulmonary
function and polysomnography in obese children and adolescents. Pediatric Pulmonology, 21,176 – 183.
 Molteni R, Barnard RJ, Ying Z, Roberts CK, Gomez-Pinilla F (2002) A high-fat, refined sugar diet reduces hippocampal
brain-derived neurotrophic factor, neuronal plasticity, and learning. Neuroscience 112: 803–14.
 Snell, E. K., Adam, E. K., & Duncan, G. J. (2007). Sleep and the Body Mass Index and Overweight Status of Children and
Adolescents. Child Development, 78(1), 309-323. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00999.x
 Spiegel, K., Tasali, E., Penev, P., & Van Cauter, E. (2004). Brief communication: Sleep curtailment in healthy young men
is associated with decreased leptin levels, elevated ghrelin levels, and increased hunger and appetite. Annals of Internal
Medicine, 141, 846 – 850.
 Stettler, N., Zemel, B. S., Kumanyika, S., & Stallings, V. A. (2002). Infantweight gain and childhood overweight status in
amulticenter, cohort study. Pediatrics, 109(2), 194–199.
 Surkan PJ, Kawachi I, Peterson KE (2008) Childhood overweight and maternal depressive symptoms. J Epidemiol
Community Health 62: e11.
 Taki, Y., Hashizume, H., Sassa, Y., Takeuchi, H., Asano, M., Asano, K., & Kawashima, R. (2010). Breakfast staple types
affect brain gray matter volume and cognitive function in healthy children. Plos ONE, 5(12),
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015213
 Worobey, J., Vetrini, N. R., & Rozo, E. M. (2009). Mechanical measurement of infant activity: A cautionary note. Infant
Behavior & Development, 32(2), 167-172. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2008.12.003