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Emotion Identification in Preschool and Early Adolescent Body Mass Index: Exploring the Roles of Depressive Symptoms and Peer Relations

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Abstract

The ability to identify and label emotions may represent an early-life risk factor that relates to excess weight gain during childhood. The current study investigates the relationships between preschool emotion identification and early adolescent body mass index (BMI), as well as the mediating role of two variables: depressive symptoms and peer relations. In a longitudinal study, preschoolers completed an emotion identification task, and parents completed psychiatric assessments and a peer-relations questionnaire about their child. BMI percentile was measured at later time points in early adolescence. Poor emotion identification during preschool predicted increases in BMI percentile over time, with greater deficits in emotion identification ability relating to steeper increases in BMI percentile across early adolescence. Peer relations in preschool partially mediated the relationship between preschool emotion identification ability and adolescent BMI. This study provides novel information about potential targets for early interventions in the service of obesity prevention.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the children, caregivers, and staff of the Preschool Depression Study for their time and dedication to this project. Additionally, the authors wish to thank Dr. Marian Tanofsky-Kraff for her helpful comments and discussion regarding the paper.

Funding

All phases of this study were supported by a National Institutes of Health Grant, R01 MH064769-06A1. Dr. Whalen’s work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants: T32 MH100019 (PI’s: Barch and Luby), L30 MH108015 (PI: Whalen) and K23 MH118426 (PI: Whalen).

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Correspondence to Deanna M. Barch.

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Pine, A., Barch, D.M., Luby, J. et al. Emotion Identification in Preschool and Early Adolescent Body Mass Index: Exploring the Roles of Depressive Symptoms and Peer Relations. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 51, 321–329 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00932-2

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