A STUDY OF INTELLIGENCE AND PERSONALITY IN CHILDREN WITH SIMPLE OBESITY

The objective of this study was to investigate differences in measures of intelligence and personality between obese and normal-weight child ren. The Wechsler intelligence Scale (IQ) for Children (revised) and t he Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) were administered to 102 ch ildren with simple obesity and their controls in a case-controlled des ign. The mean age of the children was 9.8 years and they all attended primary school in Nanjing, PRC. It was found that children in the seve re obesity category (>50% overweight) had a significantly lower perfor mance IQ score than the controls, and a significantly higher EPQ psych oticism score. These differences were not observed in children with mi lder degrees of obesity.