Maternal violence exposure increases children's risk of being overweight

Children whose mothers experienced violence during pregnancy are at higher risk of developing overweight from birth to middle childhood, suggests a recent study, underscoring intergenerational transmission of social adversity in children's health.

Using covariate-adjusted growth mixture models, the researchers identified three trajectories of children’s body mass index (BMI) from birth to 8 years of age, namely low-stable (17 percent), moderate-stable (59 percent), and high-rising (22 percent).

Children of mothers who had been exposed to more types of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy were more likely to be in the high-risk than the low-stable trajectory (odds ratio [OR], 2.62, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.27‒5.41).

Likewise, children whose mothers lived in higher crime neighbourhoods had higher odds of being in the high-rising than the low-stable (OR, 1.11, 95 percent CI, 1.03‒1.17) or moderate-stable trajectories (OR, 1.08, 95 percent CI, 1.03‒1.13).

On the other hand, the main effects of childhood traumatic events and moderation by parenting were not observed.

This study, which examined whether women's exposure to multiple types of violence during childhood and pregnancy was associated with children's BMI trajectories, included 1,288 mothers who gave birth between 2006 and 2011 and self-reported their exposure to childhood traumatic events, IPV, and residential address (linked to geocoded index of violent crime) during pregnancy.

The researchers converted children’s length/height and weight at birth and at age 1, 2, 3, 4 to 6, and 8 years to BMI z scores. Finally, they behaviourally coded observed mother‒child interactions during a dyadic teaching task.