Home and Family Environment Related to Development of Obesity: A 21-Year Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Background: Early-life conditions are important for the development of obesity. We hypothesized that home and family characteristics reflective of less supportive environments during childhood will be associated with higher adult BMI and faster BMI growth between ages 5 and 21 years. We also examined the timing and acceleration of BMI increase by adult weight status (normal weight, overweight, obese, and extremely obese) to discern how BMI increase differs across group and across time. Methods: BMI was assessed in 1000 Chilean youth (52% female) at ages 5, 10, 15, and 21 years. Latent growth curve analysis modeled BMI trajectories from 5 to 21 years. Observer and maternal ratings assessed children's home and family environments and parenting at 1 and 10 years. Results: The four weight groups differed in acceleration of BMI increase starting at age 5, with bigger children getting bigger faster. Higher 21-year BMI related to family stress, father absence, maternal depression, frequent child confinement (in playpen), an unclean home environment at 1 year, and low provision for active stimulation and few stimulating experiences at 10 years. Accelerated BMI increase related to lower learning stimulation in the home at 1 year and less parental warmth and acceptance at child age 10. Conclusions: Home and family characteristics that reflect an absence of support for children's development were associated with overweight/obesity in young adulthood and accelerated BMI growth. Findings identify several home and family characteristics that can serve as preventive or intervention targets.

Parenting andsocial‐ecologicalcorrelates with children's health behaviours: A latent profile analysis

“…Such models posit consistent associations between individual‐level behaviours, including a child's food and beverage choices, physical activity levels, screen‐time, and later child weight outcomes 13,14 . Interpersonal and family‐level behaviours, particularly caregiver health behaviours, parenting skills, and constructing family health routines have been linked to paediatric obesity and differ between children of normal weight compared to children with obesity 13‐16 . These comprehensive ecological models suggest studying multiple layers within which an individual is embedded is a promising model for examining childhood obesity 17,18 .…”

Sensitive periods for psychosocial risk in childhood and adolescence and cardiometabolic outcomes in young adulthood

“…A relatively large, prospective, longitudinal cohort in Santiago, Chile was used to test these associations. Based on research findings from this cohort and others (Carroll et al, 2011; Doom et al, 2019b; East et al, 2019; Madewell et al, 2019; Smarius et al, 2018), we hypothesized that psychosocial risk during infancy would demonstrate the strongest association with cardiometabolic outcomes in young adulthood. Due to evidence that stress before age 12 may be particularly predictive of later cardiometabolic health (Slopen et al, 2014), we further hypothesized that psychosocial risk at 5 years and 10 years, and mean and maximum of psychosocial risk, would also be predictive of cardiometabolic outcomes, though associations would be weaker than with psychosocial risk in infancy.…”

Early Nonfood Parent‐Infant Interactions and Development of Obesity in a High‐Risk, Diverse Sample

“…Analyses involved raw BMI scores at all ages. Recent studies have supported the use of raw BMI scores in assessing children's obesity risk . Moreover, the World Health Organization growth chart provides z scores only for birth up to 60 months old, which prevented us from obtaining z score values for the 60‐ and 84‐month assessments using the same chart.…”