Department of Psychology.
Department of Counseling and Human Development, University of Haifa.
Health Psychol. 2018 Jun;37(6):526-529. doi: 10.1037/hea0000601. Epub 2018 Apr 26.
Childhood adversity is a risk factor for the development of obesity in adulthood. Dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity, which has been associated separately with both adverse childhood experiences and obesity, has been posited as a mechanism by which stressful experiences influence body mass index (BMI); however, this mechanism has not yet been tested longitudinally. The present study uses multireporter, longitudinal data across three time points to test whether the adolescent cortisol awakening response (CAR), an index of diurnal HPA activity, mediates the association between adversity in childhood and BMI in adulthood.
Eighty-two youth, mothers, and fathers reported on adverse childhood experiences from middle childhood to late adolescence. During adolescence, youth provided saliva samples three times each morning across three days, which were assayed for cortisol to calculate CAR. During early adulthood, youth reported height and weight to calculate BMI.
Greater adversity predicted flatter CAR and higher young adult BMI. Flatter CAR partially mediated the association between childhood adversity and young adult BMI.
Stress-related alterations to HPA activity account in part for the childhood adversity-adult obesity link. Findings are consistent with theoretical models implicating HPA alterations as linking childhood adversity to metabolic and behavioral determinants of BMI in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record
儿童期逆境是成年期肥胖的一个风险因素。下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）活动失调与不良的童年经历和肥胖都有关联，被认为是压力经历影响体重指数（BMI）的一种机制；然而，这一机制尚未经过纵向测试。本研究使用多报告者、跨越三个时间点的纵向数据，测试青少年皮质醇觉醒反应（CAR），即 HPA 日间活动的指标，是否在童年逆境与成年 BMI 之间起中介作用。
82 名青少年、母亲和父亲从中年到青春期后期报告了儿童期的逆境经历。在青春期，青少年每天早上三次在三天内提供唾液样本，以测定皮质醇来计算 CAR。在成年早期，青少年报告身高和体重以计算 BMI。
更多的逆境预示着 CAR 更平坦，年轻成年人的 BMI 更高。CAR 变平部分中介了童年逆境与年轻成年人 BMI 之间的关系。
与压力相关的 HPA 活动改变部分解释了童年逆境与成人肥胖之间的联系。这些发现与理论模型一致，该模型表明 HPA 改变将童年逆境与成年 BMI 的代谢和行为决定因素联系起来。
