Emotional psychopathology and increased adiposity: Follow-up study in adolescents Estefania Aparicio a , Josefa Canals b, c, d , Núria Voltas c , Carmen Hernández-Martínez c, d , Victoria Arija a, d, e, * a Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Nutrition and Mental Health Research Group (NUTRISAM), Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Reus, Spain b Faculty of Education Sciences and Psychology, Nutrition and Mental Health Research Group (NUTRISAM), URV, Tarragona, Spain c Research Center for Behavioral Assessment, CRAMC, Department of Psychology, URV, Tarragona, Spain d Institut d Investigació Sanitaria Pere Virgili (IISPV), URV, Catalonia, Spain e Institut d’Investigació en Atenció Primària, IDIAP Jordi Gol i Gurina, Catalonia, Spain Keywords: Depression Anxiety Weight gain Waist circumference Longitudinal study abstract Based on data from a three-year longitudinal study, we assess the effect, according to gender, of emotional psychopathology in preadolescence on anthropometric and body composition parameters in adolescence (N ¼ 229). Psychopathology was assessed using the Screen for Childhood Anxiety and Related Emotional Disorders, the Children’s Depression Inventory and the MINI-International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Kids. Body fat per- centage (%BF), waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) were also deter- mined. Following analysis with adjusted multiple regression models, the results indicated that symptoms of depression and separation anxiety were significantly associated with increased WC and BMI in boys, and that somatic symptoms were associated with increased WC and %BF in girls. Diagnosis of social phobia, panic disorder or dysthymia led to sig- nificantly increased WC and/or BMI in boys and dysthymia increased WC in girls. These findings suggest that emotional psychopathology in preadolescence is associated with increased weight gain and abdominal fat in adolescence. Ó 2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Overweight and obesity now affect 9–36% of the child and adolescent population in several developed and developing countries (Gupta, Goel, Shah, & Misra, 2012; Lobstein & Frelut, 2003; Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012; Valdes Pizarro & Royo-Bordonada, 2012). This pathology is associated with serious complications in childhood and adolescence and increased morbidity and mor- tality in adulthood. Overweight and obese children are also at risk of obesity in adulthood (Deckelbaum & Williams, 2001). Moreover, obesity is a chronic disease with a complex multifactorial nature. Numerous genetic and environmental factors have been found to contribute to the recent epidemic of obesity. Among these risk factors, psychological factors warrant particular attention. Emotional psychopathology includes some of the most common psychiatric disorders among children and adolescents, such as depression or anxiety disorders (Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, & Angold, 2003; Esbjorn, Hoeyer, Dyrborg, Leth, & Kendall, 2010). In adolescence, anxiety disorders are the most prevalent condition (31.4%), followed in third place by mood Abbreviations: %BF, body fat percentage; WC, waist circumference; BMI, body mass index; BIA, bioelectrical impedance; CDI, Children’s Depression Inventory; SCARED, Screen for Childhood Anxiety and Related Emotional Disorders; MINI-KID, Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Kids. * Corresponding author. Public Heath and Nutrition Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, C/San Llorenç, 21, Reus, 43201 Tarragona, Spain. Tel.: þ34 977759334. E-mail address: victoria.arija@urv.cat (V. Arija). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado 0140-1971/$ – see front matter Ó 2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.12.003 Journal of Adolescence 36 (2013) 319–330