# The Impact of Psychological Health on Childhood Obesity: A Cross-Developmental Stage Analysis
## 3 Results
### Analysis in Early Childhood (Ages 8-11)  
In the cohort of children aged 8-11, our Spearman correlation analysis examined the relationship between psychological well-being and BMI categories. Across the board for all three psychological measures under study, the analysis yielded negative correlations. Specifically, the Affect Dysregulation score negatively correlated with the BMI Category Code, displaying a coefficient of -0.083. This suggests a slight inverse relationship, where higher dysregulation scores may be marginally associated with lower BMI categories. The Affect Suppression score showed a more marked negative correlation at \(-0.127\), insinuating that greater Affect Suppression could correlate with lower BMI categories. Similarly, Adaptive Reflection presented a negative correlation with a coefficient of \(-0.106\), indicating that children with better Adaptive Reflection abilities might relate to healthier BMI categories. These correlations were not statistically significant, with \(p\)-values spanning from 0.461 to 0.630, suggesting that the observed relationships may not be robust within the current sample. A heatmap was constructed to visually represent these findings (Figure 1), elucidating the direction and degree of associations among the variables studied. The intensity of the colors on the heatmap corresponds to the strength of the correlation, with cooler tones reflecting negative correlations. Notably, this visual tool underscores a modest negative correlation between Adaptive Reflection and the BMI Category Code (r = \(-0.11\)), pointing to the potential for children who are more reflectively adaptive to fall into lower BMI categories. Conversely, the Affect Suppression score's weak negative correlation with the BMI Category Code (r = \(-0.13\)) signals a negligible association with BMI categories. While these findings do not indicate strong evidence for a significant relationship between the psychological measures examined and BMI categories, they nevertheless hint at a pattern where emotional and cognitive processing may be linked with body weight  
Figure 1: Heatmap of Spearman correlation coefficients for psychological measures and BMI Category Code in children aged 8–11. classification. The consistently negative correlation coefficients, although statistically non-significant, suggest the need for further investigation into how emotional regulation and self-reflective capacities interact with obesity risk factors. This potential association could offer a deeper understanding of the multifaceted influences on childhood obesity and emphasize the importance of addressing psychological well-being in weight management strategies for children. The pattern indicated by the negative correlations, though not confirmed by this study, raises interesting questions about the relationship between a child's emotional health and their BMI Category. It suggests an avenue for future research where the role of psychological factors in physical health outcomes can be explored more comprehensively. Considering the formative nature of early childhood in setting the stage for lifelong habits and health, these preliminary indications reinforce the value of incorporating psychological evaluations into comprehensive health assessments for children. This integrated approach, acknowledging both mental and physical aspects of health, may lead to more personalized, effective, and empathetic interventions in the management and prevention of obesity in young children. Figure 2 presents a comparative visualization of the average psychological scores across BMI categories for children aged 8-11. The bar graphs depict a trend where the Affect Dysregulation and Affect Suppression scores do not vary significantly across the BMI categories. However, the Adaptive Reflection scores show a slight decrease from the Healthy to Overweight and Obese categories.