Collaborative ECHO research led by Callie Brown, MD, MPH of Wake Forest University, and Charles Wood, MD, MPH of Duke University, investigates how maternal stress can affect children’s later body mass index (BMI). This research, titled “Maternal stress and early childhood BMI among US children from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program,” is published in Pediatric Research.
Obesity affects millions of adults, adolescents, and children in the United States. Many children in the United States enter their school years with obesity, and children with obesity at 3 years of age have a 90% probability of having overweight or obesity as an adolescent.
While existing literature suggests a relationship between parental stress and childhood body mass index (BMI), the exact way in which parental stress might affect BMI in children isn’t fully understood. Researchers looked at 1,694 mother-child pairs across 15 research sites in the United States over time to evaluate how maternal stress might be associated with the child’s BMI.
The study did not find any significant link between maternal stress measured in the first year after childbirth and the child’s BMI. While the study did not find an association between maternal stress levels and childhood obesity, it did reveal other information about both maternal stress and childhood BMI. Researchers found that higher stress levels were more likely among Hispanic and Black mothers, and less likely among mothers with private health insurance. Furthermore, higher child BMI was more likely among Hispanic mothers, when a mother’s BMI before birth was higher, and when the child’s birth weight was higher.
The study’s results suggest that factors other than a mother’s stress level appear to be stronger predictors of increased childhood BMI.
“Parental stress has been associated with childhood obesity and may affect stress levels and eating, sleep, and physical activity patterns during childhood,” said study author Dr. Wood. “There are many factors in the first year of life that are related to higher weight gain and earlier obesity in children, but our results suggest that the level of a mother’s stress in the first year of life is not a risk factor. This may be because stress during pregnancy, stress later in childhood, and the child’s own stress level are stronger predictors of differences in childhood BMI.”
Future studies may look at additional factors that influence children’s risk for increased BMI such as BMI in later childhood, other periods of stress, parent or caregiver-measured stress measured, or specific types of stress.