New research suggests that childhood stress is a bigger culprit than stress during adulthood when it comes to weight gain.

Researchers from Michigan State University found that women who experienced higher levels of childhood stress gained weight more rapidly than women who experienced less childhood stress.

"These findings add to our understanding of how childhood stress is a more important driver of long-term weight gain than adult stress, and how such processes differ for men and women," researcher Hui Liu said in a statement.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from more than 3,600 people. Childhood stress was measured on a range of family-related stressors that occurred at age 16 or younger such as economic hardship, divorce, at least one parent with mental health problem and never knowing one's father. Adult stress included such factors as job loss, death of a significant other and parental and care-provider stress.

Based on her findings, Liu noted that change in body mass is a process that unfolds throughout life and childhood may be a critical period for establishing patterns that have a long-term impact on women's weight over time.

Neither childhood nor adult stress was associated with weight gain for men. Liu said this may be because men and women respond differently to stress.

It may be that women eat more to cope with stress, whereas men are more likely to engage in less weight-related strategies such as withdrawing or drinking alcohol, she said. Gender differences in depression may also help explain the difference. Depression is associated with emotion-driven eating and weight gain, and females are more likely than males to be depressed after adolescence.

The findings highlight the need for treatment and policies designed to reduce stress in childhood.

"Given the importance of body mass on health and disability," Liu said, "it's important that we consider the sex-specific social contexts of early childhood in order to design effective clinical programs that prevent or treat obesity later in life."

The findings are detailed in the journal Social Science & Medicine.