Child and Adolescent Abuse Patterns and Incident Obesity Risk in Young Adulthood

Child abuse is associated with adult obesity. Yet, it is unknown how the developmental timing and combination of abuse types affect this risk. This report examined how distinct child and adolescent abuse patterns were associated with incident obesity in young adulthood.

Data came from 7,273 participants in the Growing Up Today Study, a prospective cohort study in the U.S. with 14 waves from 1996 to 2016 (data were analyzed during 2020-2021). An abuse group variable was empirically derived using latent class analysis with indicators for child (before age 11 years) and adolescent (ages 11-17 years) physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Risk ratios for obesity developing during ages 18-30 years were estimated using modified Poisson models. Associations of abuse groups with BMI across ages 18-30 years were then examined using mixed-effects models. All models were stratified by sex.

Among women, groups characterized by abuse had higher BMIs entering young adulthood and greater changes in BMI per year across young adulthood. Groups characterized by multiple abuse types and abuse sustained across childhood and adolescence had approximately twice the risk of obesity as that of women in a no/low abuse group. Associations were substantially weaker among men, and only a group characterized by physical and emotional abuse in childhood and adolescence had an elevated obesity risk (risk ratio=1.38; 95% CI=1.04, 1.83).

Obesity risk in young adulthood varied by distinct abuse groups for women and less strongly for men. Women who experience complex abuse patterns have the greatest risk of developing obesity in young adulthood.