Adverse childhood experiences and childhood obesity: Can positive childhood experiences mitigate the association?

For this study, researchers used Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) data to develop an index of nine Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) including emotional or physical abuse, peer bullying, parental substance abuse, parental incarceration, mother exposure to intimate partner violence, mother exposure to ethnic discrimination, and parental mental illness.  An index of six Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) was also developed including parents in a committed relationship, mother interacted well with child, mother involved in social groups, child engaged in experiences and activities, child lived in a house with routines and rules, and child attended effective early childhood education. The association between ACE, PCEs, and childhood obesity was investigated at 8 years of age. Protective and mitigating effects of PCEs on ACEs-obesity link were also explored.  

Key findings include:

• adverse experiences were common among the GUiNZ cohort
• children living in financially disadvantaged households and those identified as Māori or Pacific had the highest prevalence of experiencing almost all types of adverse experiences
• children who experienced higher number of adverse experiences had higher risk of developing obesity by age 8. The risk increased as the number of adverse experiences increased
• positive experiences had a protective effect against the development of overweight/obesity by age 8. The risk decreased as the number of positive experiences increased
• presence of a sufficient number of positive experiences were required to mitigate the detrimental impacts of childhood adversities on weight status among children