Exploring Executive Functioning as a Moderator of the Association between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescents’ Risk for Obesity
Open Access
- Author:
- Hawthorne, Yani
- Area of Honors:
- Biobehavioral Health
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Lori Anne Francis, Thesis Supervisor
Kari Christine Kugler, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Childhood adversity
ACEs
Executive Function
Executive Dysfunction
Childhood Obesity
Obesity
Adolescent Obesity
Moderator
Waist Circumference - Abstract:
- Pediatric obesity is a growing public health concern in the United States, with an overall increase in overweight/obesity (BMI 3 85th percentile) noted between 1996 and 2018 in both males and females (Stierman et al., 2021). Little is known about the mechanisms by which adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may impact obesity risk. Given that executive dysfunction exacerbates the effect on obesity risk, we hypothesized that executive function (EF) might buffer the association between ACEs and the development of obesity in adolescents. We examined three indicators of adolescents’ exposure to adversity in childhood, including household chaos from 2 to 35 months, cumulative childhood sociodemographic risk from 6 to 35 months, and parents’ reports of adolescents’ ACEs. Participants included 213 adolescents drawn from a sample of rural households who experienced poverty. During a home visit, adolescents completed questionnaires, and height, weight, and waist circumference were measured. Adolescents and their parents also completed web-based surveys. Results showed that there was no direct association between ACEs, household chaos, or cumulative risk and adolescents’ waist circumference. However, significant interactions emerged between childhood adversity and executive function; specifically, ACEs and working memory (𝛽 = -0.24, p = 0.014) and cumulative risk and working memory (𝛽 = -0.37, p = 0.022) on waist circumference. Contrary to our hypothesis, the association between ACEs and waist circumference was only significant in adolescents with higher working memory. These findings provide evidence of the moderated effect of EF on the association between ACEs and adolescents’ risk for obesity, although the direction of effects was unexpected. Given the well-established association between executive dysfunction and obesity in youth, further research is needed to understand why EF did not emerge as a protective factor against obesity risk for adolescents exposed to ACEs in this sample.