title: Personality and overweight in 6-12-year-old children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Personality may be an important yet understudied influence on childhood obesity.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We investigated the association between children's personality traits and weight status in a sample of 1533 6-12 year olds.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mothers rated their child's personality using the Norwegian Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children, and reported on their child's height and weight.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Relative to their normal weight peers, overweight children were rated lower on energy, optimism, compliance, concentration, perseverance, and self-confidence, and higher on egocentricity, irritability, and anxiety.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest possible mechanisms to investigate in future research relating personality to childhood obesity.
authors.affiliation: Oregon Research Institute, Eugene, OR, USA.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Hampson
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Department of Psychosomatics and Health Behavior, Division of Mental Health, Oslo, Norway.|Psychological Institute, University of Norway, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Vollrath
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.|Department of Pediatrics, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Júlíusson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D009664:Norway; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000523:psychology*; D010551:Personality
keywords: Behavioural mechanisms; children; obesity; personality traits