Here’s how bullying and obesity affect the mental health of girls and boys.

Depressive symptoms are more common in teenage girls than in men. However, the mental health of boys suffering from obesity seems to be more affected. Regardless of gender, bullying is a significantly greater risk factor than overweight for developing depressive symptoms. These conclusions were drawn by researchers at Uppsala University who monitored adolescence for six years in a questionnaire survey.

The findings were published in the Journal of Public Health.

“The purpose of our study was to investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and depressive symptoms and to investigate in detail whether being bullied affects this relationship, and gender differences. I wanted to investigate if there was any, says Sophia Canders, a doctoral student in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Upsara.

In this study, young people born in Westmanland County answered questions about height, weight, and depressive symptoms on three separate opportunities (2012, 2015, 2018). The average age of respondents was 14.4 years at the beginning and 19.9 years at the end.

Based on BMI, adolescents were divided into three groups: normal weight, overweight, and obese, respectively. They were also grouped according to the degree of depressive symptoms.

Overall, girls, regardless of weight, frequently stated that they had depressive symptoms. In 2012, 17% of girls and 6% of boys did. By 2015, the proportion of adolescents with these symptoms had risen to 32% for girls and 13% for boys. The corresponding numbers for 2018 were 34% and 19%, respectively.

As far as researchers can see, higher BMI did not have a significant impact on the girl’s mental health. However, the patterns observed were completely different among the boys.

“A separate analysis of girls and boys found that for obese boys in 2012, the risk of depressive symptoms in 2015 was statistically five times higher than for boys of normal weight. No such relationship was found. “Kanders says.

This study is unable to answer questions about the cause of this gender difference, and researchers believe that further research is needed in this area.

Young respondents were also asked about bullying. For example, they have been bullied by adults in the past year to state whether they have been bullied or eliminated, cyberbullyed (abuse text messages or other electronic or web bullying), or at school.

In all analyzes, exposure to bullying was associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms. This relationship became apparent six years later, especially for overweight boys. Researchers believe that these results seem to indicate that there are gender differences in how BMI and bullying work together to promote the development of future depressive symptoms.

“One of the key conclusions and take-away messages from our study is that bullying can affect mental illness for a long time to come, so preventive measures against bullying in school are very important. That’s what Kanders says.

This study is a subproject of a much larger SALVe (Adolescent Life Survey in Västmanland) study. SALVe answers teenagers born in 1997 and 1999 in Westmanland County (west of Uppsala) questions about various illnesses, well-being, sleep, computer habits, games, school fun and more. I was asked. Aspects of their lives.

The purpose is to follow this cohort for 20 years to gain knowledge of how inheritance and the environment affect mental and physical health.

In 2012, 1,729 adolescents (962 girls and 767 boys) answered the researchers’ questions for the first time in this subproject. There were 1,481 respondents in 2015 and 1,111 respondents in 2018. This decrease in numbers over time was due to dropouts, with boys leaving the study slightly more than girls.

Adolescents were grouped based on the prevalence of BMI and depressive symptoms. All answers to questions about the degree of bullying were given a point score of 0-3. The researchers then compared the total scores of the different groups. That is, they did not investigate the results at the individual level.

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