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Psychosocial Stressors and Obesity

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International Handbook of the Demography of Obesity

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Population ((IHOP,volume 12))

Abstract

Obesity has been a public health issue for decades. Nevertheless, it is of recent past that researchers have implicated psychological and social (psychosocial) stress as an important risk factor of obesity. In this chapter, we introduce the topic of stress and draw attention to the biobehavioral pathways that undergird the association between psychosocial stress and obesity risk. We highlight six important psychosocial stressors that have been identified in the literature as obesogenic risk and discuss areas for future research that would help advance our understanding of psychosocial stress and obesity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NYU School of Global Public Health, New York, NY, USA

    Adolfo G. Cuevas

  2. Department of Community Health, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Natalie Eckert & Keri Carvalho

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  1. Adolfo G. Cuevas
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  2. Natalie Eckert
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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Ginny Garcia-Alexander

  2. Department of Sociology, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Dudley L. Poston, Jr.

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Cuevas, A.G., Eckert, N., Carvalho, K. (2022). Psychosocial Stressors and Obesity. In: Garcia-Alexander, G., Poston, Jr., D.L. (eds) International Handbook of the Demography of Obesity. International Handbooks of Population, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10936-2_12

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