Anneli Sepa

Psychological Stress and Obesity

OBJECTIVE To examine whether there is a relationship between psychological stress in the family and obesity in 5- to 6-year-old children. STUDY DESIGN A total of 7443 Swedish families reported on psychological stress across 4 domains as part of the prospective All Babies in Southeast Sweden-project (ABIS). Domains assessed included serious life events, parenting stress, lack of social support, and parental worries. These variables were summarized in cross-sectional and longitudinal composite measures of psychological stress. Logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios for childhood obesity for psychological stress. RESULTS A total of 4.2% of the children were obese according to age-adjusted international standards. Children from families that reported stress in at least 2 of the 4 domains assessed had significantly higher adjusted odds ratios (OR) for obesity, both cross-sectionally (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.3-3.5; P < .01) and longitudinally (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.3-5.4, P < .01). CONCLUSION Psychological stress in the family may be a contributing factor for childhood obesity. This finding underscores how important it is to give children with obesity and their families psychological and social support in addition to recommendations about changing life style.

Current attachment representations of incarcerated offenders varying in degree of psychopathy

The present study sought to examine the current mental representations of early attachment relationships in 24 psychopathic criminal offenders, incarcerated in a forensic psychiatric hospital or a medium-security prison. The participants had been assessed on Hares Psychopathy Checklist, Revised: Screening Version (PCL-R, sv, 1997) and scored either high or low. They were interviewed with the Main and Goldwyn Adult Attachment Interview (1998) and completed the EMBU, a Swedish self-report questionnaire tapping memories of the parents rearing techniques. The results pointed to an extensive over-representation of individuals who were dismissing of attachment and attachment-related experiences (close to three times as many as in the normal population), no secure individuals, and with the remainder being either unclassifiable or unresolved with regard to severe early abuse/trauma. In addition, an examination of the EMBU data revealed an association between a higher psychopathy score and a family constellation of a rejecting father and an emotionally very warm (idealized) mother. The discussion will focus on the unique discourse of the dismissing individuals and on clinical implications.

Screening for prediabetes in the general child population: maternal attitude to participation

Abstract: Screening to predict serious diseases in the general population has been regarded as unethical as it is supposed to make people anxious. Therefore we have evaluated whether mothers become anxious when their babies participate in a project to predict diabetes in the general child population. Out of 21 700 newborn children, 16 300 (75%) entered the ABIS project (All Babies in South‐east Sweden). The parents (usually the mothers) answered a questionnaire at the childs birth and then again after 1 yr. A total of 10 868 representative birth questionnaires had been analyzed. To the question, ‘How do you feel when you know that your child is participating in this study?’, only 2.5% of mothers of children with type 1 diabetes in the family answered ‘more anxious/much more anxious’, and even fewer (1.5%) of the mothers in the general population (p < 0.01). A total of 52.5% of the general population answered ‘calmer/more reassured’ (29.3% ‘calmer’ and 23.2% ‘much calmer’), while 43.3% felt unaffected. Those 1.5% of mothers who reported becoming more anxious were more likely to be in an unstable social situation (unemployed, p < 0.001; born abroad, p < 0.001; low education, p < 0.001).

Parent perceptions of child sleep: a study of 10 000 Swedish children

Aim: To gather normative data on parent‐reported child sleep and investigate what influences it.

Psychological Stress and the Risk of Diabetes-Related Autoimmunity: A Review Article

The β cell stress hypothesis suggests that any phenomenon that induces insulin resistance, and thereby extra pressure on the β cells, should be regarded as a risk factor for type 1 diabetes (T1D). Psychological stress decreases insulin sensitivity and increases insulin resistance and may hence be important in the development/onset of T1D. The aim of the current review article was to evaluate existing empirical evidence concerning an association between psychological stress and development/onset of T1D as well as diabetes-related autoimmunity. Ten retrospective case-control studies were found. Nine studies showed a positive association between stress and development/onset of T1D in children, adolescents or adults. One study did not find an association between stress and development/onset of T1D. An association between stress and diabetes-related autoimmunity was found at 1 and 2– 3 years of age in a large epidemiological study of the general population. The hypothesis that psychological stress (via β cell stress or direct influence on the immune system) may contribute to the induction or progression of diabetes-related autoimmunity has gained some strong initial support, but is in need of further empirical verification. It seems much clearer that stress can precipitate manifest T1D, although the biological mechanisms are still not known.

Could Parenting Stress and Lack of Support/ Confidence Function as Mediating Mechanisms between Certain Environmental Factors and the Development of Autoimmunity in Children? A Study within ABIS

Abstract: Despite extensive research, the etiology of type 1 diabetes is still to a large extent unknown. We would like to propose psychoimmunology as one possible pathway. Psychological mechanisms are directly linked to hormonal and nervous signals, which increase the need for insulin and affect the immune system. Disparate factors of social, environmental, and medical character have been associated with the onset of type 1 diabetes or with the autoimmune process leading to the disease—for instance, parental age, maternal infections, delivery mood, need for neonatal intensive care, and low socioeconomic status. Our results, based on the analyses of 4337 nonselected newborn children and their mothers, show that all these risk factors were also associated with psychological mechanisms (defined as lack of social support/confidence and high parenting stress). These results support the hypothesis of psychological mechanisms as mediating variables between a number of disparate risk factors and the development of type 1 diabetes.