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Master of Public Health

The role of prenatal violence exposure in the development of disparities in children's adiposity from birth to middle childhood

AUTHORS

Rudd KL , Zhao Q , Lisha NE , Graff JC , Norona-Zhou A , Roubinov DS , Barrett ES , Juarez P , Carroll KN , Karr CJ , Sathyanarayana S , Mason WA , LeWinn KZ , Bush NR , . Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.). 2023 7 2; ().

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether women’s exposure to multiple types of violence during childhood and pregnancy was associated with children’s BMI trajectories and whether parenting quality moderated those associations.

METHODS: A cohort of 1288 women who gave birth between 2006 and 2011 self-reported their exposure to childhood traumatic events, intimate partner violence (IPV), and residential address (linked to geocoded index of violent crime) during pregnancy. Children’s length/height and weight at birth and at age 1, 2, 3, 4 to 6, and 8 years were converted to BMI z scores. Observed mother-child interactions were behaviorally coded during a dyadic teaching task.

RESULTS: Covariate-adjusted growth mixture models identified three trajectories of children’s BMI from birth to 8 years old: Low-Stable (17%), Moderate-Stable (59%), and High-Rising (22%). Children whose mothers experienced more types of IPV during pregnancy were more likely to be in the High-Rising than the Low-Stable (odds ratio [OR] = 2.62; 95% CI: 1.27-5.41) trajectory. Children whose mothers lived in higher crime neighborhoods were more likely to be in the High-Rising than the Low-Stable (OR = 1.11; 95% CI:1.03-1.17) or Moderate-Stable trajectories (OR = 1.08; CI: 1.03-1.13). Main effects of childhood traumatic events and moderation by parenting were not detected.

CONCLUSIONS: Maternal experiences of violence during pregnancy increase children’s risk for developing overweight, highlighting intergenerational transmission of social adversity in children’s health.

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