Adolescents’ Depressive Symptom Experience Mediates the Impact of Long-Term Exposure to Maternal Depression Symptoms on Adolescents’ Body Mass Index

Abstract

Obesity is a cardiovascular disease risk factor and affects approximately 13.7 million U.S. children and adolescents between the ages 2 and 19 years old in 2015–2016. To determine the relationship between children’s average long-term exposure to maternal depressive symptoms age 1 month to Grade 6 and adolescents’ body mass index (BMI) z-score at age 15 mediated by the adolescents’ depressive symptom experience. A total of 1,364 infants and their families from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were recruited. Mediation analyses revealed a significant relationship between children’s average long-term exposure to maternal depressive symptoms from age 1 month to Grade 6 and adolescents’ BMI z-score at age 15 (total effect = 0.015, p = .013, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.0032, 0.027). The adolescents’ experience of depressive symptoms significantly mediated this relationship (indirect effect = 0.0021, bias-corrected bootstrapped 95% CI: 0.0004, 0.0044), with this mediated relationship more pronounced in girls. Findings indicate the possible existence of a mediating role of adolescents’ depressive symptoms experience in the pathway from average long-term exposure to maternal depressive symptoms during children’s early life to adolescents’ elevated BMI.