Body mass index trajectory throughout adolescence: a comparison of maltreated adolescents by maltreatment type to a community sample.

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment is associated with adult obesity, but there is conflicting evidence regarding the relationship between childhood maltreatment and obesity during adolescence. To compare the body mass index (BMI) trajectory of adolescents with a specific type of maltreatment (sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse or neglect) to adolescents with another type of maltreatment (maltreated sample n = 303) and to a comparison group (n = 151). Individual growth models were used to estimate average growth trajectories of BMI percentile separately by sex (ages 9 to 22 years). Unconditional and conditional linear and quadratic growth models were estimated and maltreatment types were added before including covariates (ethnicity, anxiety, depression and pubertal stage). BMI growth trajectories of sexually abused girls and neglected girls were significantly different from comparison girls. Comparison girls had a growth trajectory that reached its apex at 15 years and then began to decline, whereas sexually abused girls and neglected girls had lower BMI than comparison girls until age 16-17 years when their BMI was higher than comparison girls. Late adolescence appears to be the developmental period during which differences in BMI percentiles become pronounced between girls with sexual abuse or with neglect vs. comparison girls.