The relationship between childhood depression, obesity and poor school performance among urban disadvantaged children

Abstract

The Relationship between Childhood Depression, Obesity and Poor School Performance among Urban Disadvantaged Children Prakashini Banka Background: Despite the recent emergence of literature establishing the prevalence of childhood depression, research has failed to provide insight in its concomitant factors. While depression in adults has been associated with multiple negative correlates such as rumination, loss of interest in pleasurable activities, overeating, and lack of concentration, the picture for children is less clear. There is a suggestion that urban disadvantaged children may be more at risk of depression and that obesity and school performance play a role in it, but how these variables interrelate is uncertain. The present study aims to address this issue. Aims: The main aims of the study is to investigate the relationship between childhood depression, obesity and poor school performance among urban disadvantaged children, and to identify predictors of depression, obesity and poor school performance. Methods: This study makes use of an observational cross-sectional design. Data for this PhD research was collected in 2013 from the original participating schools of the Healthy School Programme (HSP). The PhD data was collected in schools some time after the completion of the HSP. The HSP, which was funded by the Childhood Development Initiative (CDI), took place between 2009 and 2012 to implement a health promoting intervention among urban disadvantaged children in Irish primary schools. Data collected included Body Mass Index (BMI), depressive symptoms, indicators of wellbeing, quality of life, dietary patterns, physical activity, and indicators of school performance. Descriptive analyses were conducted and inferential analyses such as correlations, logistic regression models and mediation models were conducted. This study received ethical approval from the researcher's university. Results: Three predictors were identified from the first model, indicating that physical wellbeing, body weight perception and school environment were significant predictors of obesity. There were four predictors of depression identified, and these were gender, psychological wellbeing, body weight perception and bullying. As for the third model, five predictor variables were statistically significant in relation to its impact on reading scores, and these were gender, BMI, maths scores, Parental relationship and body weight perception. Finally, in the fourth model, there were two significant predictors of maths performance and they were reading schools and physical wellbeing. Two mediation models were conducted and the first model included depression as the predictor variable, BMI scores as the mediating variable and reading scores as the outcome variable. The findings from the first model indicated that there was a statistically significant direct effect between depressive symptoms and BMI scores, however, the indirect and direct effect was not significant, indicating that BMI did not have a mediating effect on depressive symptoms and reading scores, and depressive symptoms did not influence reading scores. The second model included depression as the predictor variable, BMI scores as the mediating variable and maths scores as the outcome variable. Similar to the first model, there was a statistically significant direct effect between depressive symptoms and BMI scores, however, the indirect and direct effect was not significant, and therefore, indicating that BMI did not have a mediating effect on depressive symptoms and maths scores, and depressive symptoms did not affect maths scores. Conclusion: The findings suggest that there is a relationship between depression and obesity. The mediational findings reported that depression affected BMI scores of children, and the regression models identified the following variables as significant predictors for depression; gender, psychological wellbeing, bullying and body weight perception. For BMI, three predictors were identified; physical wellbeing, school environment and body weight perception. It was also identified that there is currently no combined treatment for depression and obesity in Ireland, and previous research suggesting that these two illnesses should be treated together, the study provided recommendations to address these issues. These recommendations are intended to inform policy makers, health professionals and researchers in order to improve treatment methods, policies and further investigate the relationship between depression and obesity in future research.