The effects of going hungry in childhood may be more lasting than previously thought. Researchers studying people raised on Barbados who suffered severe starvation as infants found these adults were more anxious, less sociable, less interested in new experiences and more hostile than those who were well-nourished throughout childhood, according to a study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Scientists led by Dr. Janina Galler of Harvard Medical School studied 77 children, born between 1967 and 1972, who were hospitalized for severe starvation syndromes known as marasmus or kwashiorkor at an average age of seven months, to determine how the malnutrition affected personality development. Kwashiorkor results from a lack of protein and is marked by the protruding belly that has become a familiar symptom of child starvation.  Marasmus is caused by poor caloric intake and children with this condition look more emaciated.  Some children in the study had symptoms of both.  Worldwide, nearly 3 million children under five die of hunger annually— and around 25% of the world’s children suffer stunted growth due to malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization. MORE: Effects of Child Hunger on Health Can Last Decades The children in the study were enrolled in a hunger treatment and prevention program at the Barbados Nutrition Center, which provided food as well as home visits to monitor their recovery and nutrition education until they were 12.  None of them had been born underweight or suffered from further starvation after the program started. Although their growth was stunted, they caught up with normal growth curves by adolescence.  This group was compared with 57 school classmates, matched in age and gender, who had not suffered starvation. The malnourished children were five times more likely to score higher than normal on tests of neuroticism — a trait that measures negative emotions and a tendency to feel uncontrollable distress— when they were in their 40s, compared to the well-nourished controls. Hunger also seemed to have an effect on suppressing development of extraversion, or sociability, since the children who … Continue reading How Childhood Hunger Can Change Adult Personality