Aug 2026· Human Biology and Public Health· pp. 1-15· 0 citations
TL;DR
The findings suggest that gender-specific roles influence physical growth, and it is speculated that tradwife effects and aspects of mate selection exhibit effects on height in young adolescents.
Abstract
Background Previous studies have shown associations between human growth and socioeconomic conditions. As these conditions are often associated with feelings of well-being and mental health, these feelings may in turn be associated with body height. The present study was conducted to determine the contribution of specific feelings to the growth of young adolescents.
Methods The study surveyed a total of 240 early pubertal boys (aged 12–13 years) and 98 early pubertal girls (aged 11 years). The study included height and data on mental and emotional well-being across various areas of life obtained from questionnaires of the KiGGS Wave 2, a comprehensive study conducted by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on the health of children and adolescents living in Germany.
Results Early pubertal boys and girls differ in their patterns of associations between feelings and body height. In contrast to expectation, taller height in girls is associated with negative feelings, shorter height is associated with the feeling “energy”. Shorter height in boys was mildly associated with a higher level of “worries”.
Conclusion The present study provides new insights into the relationships between feelings and height during early pubertal age. The findings suggest that gender-specific roles influence physical growth. It is speculated that tradwife effects and aspects of mate selection exhibit effects on height in young adolescents.
Introduction: Adolescents generally experience greater emotional intensity and interpersonal conflict than either children or adults. How adolescents respond to the emotional stress of their body weight is different among boys and girls. This investigation aimed to verify the association between body mass index and emotional symptoms among alpha generation adolescent in coastal areas whether it was similar in boys and girls.Methods : A Cross Sectional study was conducted from Periodic Health Screening and Examination in School Data by Public Health Center of all adolescent born 2010-2014 in Junior High School on August 2025. Emotional Symptom assessed using by a Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for 11-18 years old. Body Mass Index measured by body weight and height of each participant. All cleaned data for analysis was 2.786. The analysis of the association between BMI and emotional symptom differs by sex using Pearson’s Chi-Square Test and to analyse a stratified by gender to examine whether the association of binary category differs using Multinomial Logistic Regression.Results: The result show a statistically significant association BMI and Emotional Symptom among both boys (p = 0.037) and girls (p = 0.024) also the association BMI and Emotional Symptom differs significantly by gender (p <0.001). Among boys, a significant positive association emerged for the Overweight category compares to those individuals with Borderline symptoms and Normal symptoms (OR = 2.12; 95% CI= 1.19–3.76; p = 0.011). In girls, a significant association emerged for the Thinnes category compares to the individuals with Abnormal symptoms and Normal symptoms (OR = 0.68; 95% CI=0.53–0.88; p = 0.003).Conclusion: For Boys, the risk appears to concentrate at the higher end of the BMI spectrum. Overweight boys are significantly increase odds of borderline symptoms. For Girls, the risk appears to concentrate at the lower end of the BMI spectrum, but in the opposite direction. Thinnes girls have significantly lower odds of abnormal symptoms. Interventions targeting emotional well-being may need to consider overweight and obesity as potential risk factors for boys. Public health programs must take this into account in order to adapt their message to adolescents.
Unknown authors· Journal of public health for...· 0 citations
PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine the association between adiposity and depressive symptoms in ethnically and racially diverse early adolescents, age 11-14 years old.
DESIGN AND METHODS
The design was a cross-sectional observational study, with 78 participants from two middle schools in the southeast. Height, weight, and waist circumference were measured, and body fat percentage (BF%) was obtained using a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) scale. Body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were calculated. Participants completed the Children's Depression Inventory II (CDI-2) measure. Estimates of effect size based on general multiple linear regression was used to assess the association between adiposity and depressive symptoms, controlling for gender, puberty, and physical activity.
RESULTS
Increased adiposity was associated with decreased depressive symptoms in the context of racially and ethnically diverse early adolescents, with a large effect size (ω2 = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.03, 1.00) between depressive symptoms and BMI category, and small effect sizes for the associations for WHtR (ω2 = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.00, 1.00) and BF% (ω2 = 0.01, 95% CI = 0.00, 1.00) with depressive symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate an inverse association between adiposity and depressive symptoms among early adolescents, which contrasts with many prior studies and underscores the complexity of the relationship between adiposity and mental health during this developmental period. Given the pilot nature of the study and the small sample size, these findings should be interpreted cautiously and warrant confirmation in fully powered studies that include diverse populations across racial and ethnic groups.
IMPLICATIONS TO PRACTICE
Greater attention should be paid to overweight and obesity status, and improved screening for depression should be implemented.
Elizabeth S Coleman, Pamela G. Bowen, Peng Li et al.· Journal of pediatric nursing· 0 citations
Background: During adolescence, rapid changes in the physical, cognitive, and social domains can make it difficult for individuals to regulate their emotions, potentially leading to increased aggression when psychological well-being is compromised.
Objective: This study aimed to examine the association between emotional and psychological well-being and levels of aggression among high school students.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between July 2024 and May 2025 and included 195 high school students in Mersin, Turkey, who met the sampling criteria. Data were collected using a demographic information form, the Stirling Children's Emotional and Psychological Well-Being Scale (SCWBS), and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ). Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, linear regression, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and post hoc tests.
Results: The majority of participants were female. Emotional and psychological well-being was significantly and inversely associated with overall aggression and with its hostility, anger, and verbal aggression subscales, both before and after adjustment for sociodemographic and behavioral covariates. In a multivariable linear regression model, emotional and psychological well-being was associated with overall aggression scale score (adjusted B=-0.551, 95% CI: (-0.845 ‒ -0.257, p<0.001). After adjustment, the association between well-being and physical aggression across other domains of the aggression scale was no longer statistically significant (adjusted B = -0.045, 95% CI: -0.165 to 0.076, p = 0.466).
Conclusion: Emotional and psychological well-being are significant negative predictors of aggression in adolescents, suggesting that enhancing well-being may be an effective strategy for reducing aggressive behavior.
Kevser Erdinç Gedik, Atiye Karakul, D. S. Düzkaya· Liaquat National Journal of...· 0 citations
Background: Adequate body weight is considered one of the indicators of an individual’s health. Body fat ratio must be monitored to assess body weight adequacy, particularly for the prediction and diagnosis of overweight and obesity. As the literature documents, the amount of body fat among children of early school age is influenced by sex and their families’ economic status, suggesting an association between increased childhood obesity and economic disadvantage. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine whether children from households experiencing persistent financial hardship exhibit higher adiposity levels than their peers from economically stable families. Methods: This prospective study included 532 children aged 10–11 years (girls: n=250, age 10.6±0.7 years; boys: n=282, age 10.7±0.8 years). Children were divided into three socio-economic groups and by sex: G1M boys (n=166) and G1F girls (n=145) from economically stable families; G2M boys (n=67) and G2F girls (n=56) for whom socio-economic status (SES) could not be identified; and G3M boys (n=49) and G3F girls (n=49) from financially disadvantaged families. Body composition (BC) parameters – body mass (BM), body fat (BF), and visceral fat (VF) – were measured using BIA. Family SES was assessed through a questionnaire for parents. Results: Significant differences in BMI, BF, and VF were found only between the groups G1M and G3M, boys in G1M showing lower values than those in G3M (BMI: G1M=17.8±3.1, G3M=19.3±4.4; BF kg: G1M=8.0±5.2, G3M=10.7±8.2; BF%: G1M=19.6±8.2, G3M=23.5±11.0; VF cm²: G1M=34.0±28.9, G3M=49.3±44.7). Conclusion: A potential association between increased adiposity and family financial difficulties was observed only in boys.
Modelling physical growth is a key component to examine and identify definingcharacteristics in the growth process.The goal of this study was to model and captureknown features of height growth in Ethiopian children aged 1–12 years. Heightmeasurements of 1760 children followed from 1 to 12 years at Young Lives Ethiopia, ayounger cohort,used in the study. The mixed effects method was used to estimate the rateof change within and between subjects over time and to identify defining covariates.Adultheight and rate of change over time were individual-specific resulting individual-levelgrowth differences. There was a negative relationship between individual-specific adultheight and rate of change over time. The decelerated rate of change was observed fromchildhood to the onset of puberty in both sexes. Boys were taller than girls between theages of 3 and 7 years. Mother’s educational status, access to quality drinking water, age,and sex had a significant effect on height growth. Children who had a decelerated rate ofgrowth change during the childhood period become taller later in life. Adult height couldbe determined by an individual-specific rate of change over time.
Dereje Danbe Debeko, A. Goshu· East African Journal of Biop...· 1 citation
Early-life nutrition is a critical predictor of long-term health, yet the association between rapid early-childhood growth and adolescent obesity, particularly in relation to the “double burden of malnutrition,” remains under-researched in Indonesia. This study aimed to analyze the association between rapid growth and adolescent obesity. Data were obtained from the 1997, 2000, and 2014 waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS). This study included 641 children (aged 0–23 months at baseline) with complete anthropometric measurements across all three waves. Rapid growth was defined as an increase in z-scores of >0.67 in weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ), or weight-for-height (WHZ) between 1997 and 2000. Multivariable logistic regression, stratified by baseline nutritional status, was used to estimate adjusted risk ratios (aRRs). The adolescent obesity prevalence was 4.5%. Rapid WAZ growth was significantly associated with adolescent obesity (aRR = 4.49; 95% CI: 1.32–15.25), whereas rapid WHZ growth showed a borderline association (aRR = 2.90; 95% CI: 0.87–9.47). Stratified analysis showed that the association between rapid weight gain and adolescent obesity was markedly stronger among children with a history of undernutrition (aRR = 14.99 for WAZ; aRR = 9.52 for WHZ) than among those without. Rapid weight gain during early childhood, particularly in children with a history of undernutrition, is a strong predictor of adolescent obesity. These findings emphasize the importance of integrating longitudinal growth-trajectory monitoring into routine child health assessments to promote healthy growth while minimizing future metabolic risks.
