title: Relationships between pediatric obesity and maternal emotional states and attitudes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goal of this study was to investigate depression and anxiety levels of mothers whose child (7-11 years) and adolescent (12-18 years) offspring had obesity, as well as those mothers' attitudes toward their children and their family relationships.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a cross-sectional, case-control study of 100 dyads. All mothers completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Parental Attitude Research Instrument, and the Family Assessment Device.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Maternal state anxiety in the group with obesity was significantly higher than controls (p = 0.03). As measured by Family Assessment Device, affective involvement (p = 0.05) and behavior control (p = 0.00) scores were significantly higher for those with obesity. Obesity and adolescence have independent effects on maternal state anxiety; affective involvement domain of family function is affected by both obesity and its interaction with adolescence, while behavior control domain is singularly affected by obesity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results may demonstrate that, for the mothers of children who have obesity, this condition may have an adverse effect on their lives and their family relationships. Pediatric obesity and developmental stage of offspring may have different effects on maternally reported psychometric variables. Cross-sectional design may hinder causal explanations. Further studies with longitudinal designs are needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Dokuz Eylul University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aynur Pekcanlar
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Akay
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition Department of Pediatrics, Dokuz Eylul University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey Division of Pediatric Metabolic Disease, Department of Pediatrics, Dokuz Eylul University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Yesim
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ozturk
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Adnan Menderes University School of Medicine, Aydın, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sibel Nur
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Avcil
authors.affiliation: İzmir Dr. Behçet Uz Çocuk Hastalıkları ve Cerrahisi Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Canem
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kavurma
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Abant İzzet Baysal University Medical Faculty, Bolu, Turkey tevrenus@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Evren
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tufan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity
keywords: Obesity; anxiety; depression; family; family functioning; parental attitude; parenting; pediatric