title: Habituation to a stressor predicts adolescents' adiposity.
abstract: Stress is associated with gains in adiposity. One factor that determines how much stress is experienced is how quickly an adolescent reduces responding (habituates) across repeated stressors. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of body mass index (BMI) percentile and the rate of habituation to a stressor.
  
  
  
  Thirty-four adolescents completed anthropometric measures and a habituation protocol using a within study design.
  
  
  
  The habituation protocol measured the rate of decline in perceived stress and heart rate (HR) across four, two-minute serial subtraction trials.
  
  
  
  Multivariate linear regression revealed the habituation rate of the HR predicted BMI percentile after adjusting for gender, socioeconomic status, and initial HR (β = 17.2, p < .04).
  
  
  
  Slower habituation to a laboratory stressor was associated with greater BMI percentiles in adolescents.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pediatrics , University at Buffalo , Buffalo , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Denise M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Feda
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pediatrics , University at Buffalo , Buffalo , NY , USA.
authors.forename: April M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: b USDA-ARS-NPA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Center , Grand Forks , ND , USA.
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Roemmich
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Adolescence; body mass index; habituation; obesity; stress