We've all heard that diet and lifestyle contribute to obesity, but what if there was more to the story? And what if you could predict the risk of obesity from data collected 14 years earlier?
Adolescence is a formative time of development, and life stressors during these years may be linked to adult obesity. Habits that you develop, or very challenging stressors you encounter in adolescence, can affect your health for many subsequent years.
In our recent study, we measured stressors in middle and high school adolescents in grades 7- 12 in 80 high schools and 52 middle schools in the United States, and then followed them throughout their transition to young adulthood. Two sources of stress were of interest:
- Interpersonal stressors include being a victim of a crime (e.g., being held up or mugged), the death of close relationships, and a parental figure being in jail.
- Financial stressors include their family receiving public assistance or welfare, their parents being unemployed, and low parental educational attainment.
All of these are stressful situations and the more of these that you have experienced, the more stress you will feel.
In terms of positive and protective factors, we also measured social support—how much they felt that parents, teachers, other adults, and friends care about them—and also social cohesion in terms of how supportive their neighbors are.
Could Stressors During Adolescence Lead to Higher Adult Obesity?
BMI (Body Mass Index) uses a person's height and weight in a combined index to assess weight-related health risk factors. In our case, when following up with our participants 14 years later, our emphasis was on stressors experienced during adolescence in relation to their later BMI as an adult. Alongside interviewing study participants, we measured their BMI in their homes for accuracy.
Taking all our stress variables and demographic factors into account, we found that interpersonal stressors were directly linked to BMI 14 years later. Even more interesting, social support from friends and family and supportive neighborhoods counteracted the negative effect of stressors in adolescence, particularly interpersonal stress, when we predicted BMI 14 years later. Thus, feeling cared for by others or living in a supportive and safe neighborhood might soften the effects of interpersonal stress on one's later health. Parents, teachers, other trusted adults, friends, and family members can provide this social support. For young people, having a large, compassionate, and caring social network can be helpful in navigating times of crisis and can promote good psychological and physical health.
Social cohesion, or the solidarity felt between the individual and their community, also can act as a protective factor. Communicating with neighbors, knowing your neighbors, and feeling that neighbors look out for one another are great measures of this, and can thereby be another route of support. Our study did not find a relationship between financial stressors in adolescence and BMI in adulthood.
Understanding the factors contributing to adult obesity can help people better prepare for potential health risks and even develop their own strategies to prevent the development of these stress pathways. Future research is needed, but it could be that targeted social interventions, such as greater time spent with friends and family or joining a local soccer club, at the time of intense interpersonal stressors could protect individuals from developing obesity and other health risks 14 years down the road. Even sessions with a psychotherapist could act as an interpersonal support system in times of hardship.
Adolescents who face major interpersonal stressors may be at higher risk for obesity as adults, a risk that is linked to a multitude of other health issues. To counter this effect, our research suggests that a supportive community and a friendly neighborhood among adolescents can promote positive health in adulthood.
For Further Reading
Stanton, M. V., Jones, A., & Shahani, D. (2022). Relationship among interpersonal stressors in adolescence, social support buffers, and obesity in adulthood 14 years later. Health Psychology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea0001223
Michael V. Stanton is Associate Professor of Public Health at California State University, East Bay who studies health disparities, stress, and obesity.
Antwan Jones is Professor of Sociology, Epidemiology, and Public Policy at George Washington University who studies neighborhood effects, health disparities, and obesity.
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