Definition Socio-Economic Status, SES, and Family Problems in Obesity

Obese children have more often parents of low SES than normal weight
children [7]. And families of low SES often have more social and psychological
problems than the population in general. Psychological problems may play
an important role in the development and maintenance of obesity. Parenting
style in low SES families is to a higher degree characterized by neglect and
permissiveness. And this type of parenting style is common in families where
children have psychological problems. Emotional distress in early childhood
can affect the energy balance by shifting behavior into overeating and physical
inactivity. Emotional distress could also affect hormone balances, which in turn
could have negative effect on fat accumulation.
Difficult psychiatric conditions are sometimes associated with obesity.
A recent study showed that borderline personality was associated with higher
body weight, probably due to deficits in self-regulation [8]. The nature of this
association and implication for obesity is, however, unclear. For example, it has
been postulated that many patients described as borderline have in fact been sexually
abused in childhood. They have developed symptoms similar to borderline
that more aptly should be seen as complex posttraumatic stress symptoms [9].
Patients showing this set of problems require more effort in the treatment of
obesity as they more easily abandon treatment and are defeated by their sense of
having failed.