Kids who live in the stressful atmosphere of home have a high risk of developing obesity, results concluded from study of Swedish families.

In this particular study, researchers compared the children, aged five to six living in low stress level with children living in high stress level. The risk of obesity was double in the high stress families kids, the researches found.

“Families can possibly cope with some stress or factor creating stress, but not with multiple factors at one fell swoop,” Felix-Sebastian Koch said.

When stress gets too difficult to handle, Koch said, “The risk to developing childhood obesity become great.”

Koch and colleagues evaluate stress levels in 7443 Swedish families from the time their children were born through the children’s current age of 5 to 6 years. Fifty-two percent of the children were boys.

At the later assessment, 4.2 percent of the children were obese, according to a report of the study in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Koch and his team assessed the stress level in 7443 families, since the child birth to the kids’ current age. In the later review 4.2 percent children had developed obesity.

“Only stress is not the culprit, other factors also interact which make the problem of childhood obesity worse,” Koch said. But it is definitely not the single most factor related to childhood obesity, he added.

However, since this study suggests that, high stress in family may contribute to childhood obesity now it is essential for such families to find way out, Koch and colleagues conclude.