Intergenerational Pathways Between Parental Exposure to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Child Weight

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Jerica M. Berge, PhD, MPH, LMFT, CFLE; Allan Tate, PhD; Amanda Trofholz, MPH, RD; Alicia Kunin-Batson, PhD, LP 

Corresponding Author: Jerica M. Berge, PhD, MPH, LMFT, CFLE; University of Minnesota Medical School - Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.
Email: jberge@umn.edu
DOI: 10.3122/jabfm.2022.220134R1
Keywords: Adverse Childhood Experiences, Body Mass Index, Childhood Obesity, Mental Health, Minnesota, Parenting, Structural Equation Modeling
Dates: Submitted: 03-30-2022; Revised: 08-21-2022; Accepted: 08-23-2022
Status: Ahead of print: Available now. Final publication: February 2023

Ahead of Print:  | HTML |  | PDF |     Final Publication: | TBD |

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Prior research suggests an association between parental experiencing of one or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and increased risk for overweight/obesity in their children. However, the pathways through which parental experiences of ACEs leads to child weight are unclear.

METHODS: Participants were parent and child dyads (n=1307) from racially/ethnically diverse and low-income households in Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota in 2015. Parents completed an online survey regarding their own adverse experiences in childhood, their height and weight, parenting practices and mental health. Child height and weight were obtained from electronic medical records. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the extent to which parent mental health and parenting practices mediate associations between parental ACEs and child body mass index percentile (BMI%ile).

RESULTS: The parent mental health pathway was statistically significant in explaining the intergenerational transmission of parental ACEs to child weight. Specifically, parent ACEs were positively associated with low parent mental health (β=0.376; p<0.001), parent low mental health was correlated with higher parent BMI > 25 (β=0.145; p<0.001), and parent overweight was positively related to higher child BMI%ile (β=0.092; p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Study findings suggest that intervening on parent low mental health may be a key factor in reducing the intergenerational transmission between parental ACEs and child weight. Researchers and health care providers who work with parents who have experienced ACEs and their school-age children may want to target parent mental health when intervening on child BMI%ile.

ABSTRACTS IN PRESS