Abstract
There is a critical need for research examining how neural vulnerabilities associated with obesity, including lower executive control, interact with family factors to impact weight trajectories across adolescence. Utilizing a longitudinal design, the present study investigated caregivers’ emotion socialization practices as a moderator of the association between preschool executive control and adolescent body mass index (BMI) trajectories. Participants were 229 youth (Mage = 5.24, SD = 0.03; 47.2% assigned female at birth; 73.8% White, 3.9% Black, 0.4% Asian American, 21.8% multiracial; 12.7% Hispanic) enrolled in a longitudinal study. At preschool-age, participants completed performance-based executive control tasks, and their caregivers reported on their typical emotion-related socialization behaviors (i.e., supportive and nonsupportive responses to children’s negative emotions). Participants returned for annual laboratory visits at ages 14 through 17, during which their height and weight were measured to calculate BMI. Although neither preschool executive control nor caregiver emotion-related socialization behaviors were directly associated with BMI growth in adolescence, supportive responses moderated the association between executive control and BMI trajectories. The expected negative association between lower preschool executive control and greater BMI growth was present at below average levels of supportive responses, suggesting that external regulation afforded by supportive responses might reduce risk for adolescent overweight and obesity among children with lower internal self-regulatory resources during preschool. Findings highlight the importance of efforts to bolster executive control early in development and targeted interventions to promote effective caregiver emotion socialization (i.e., more supportive responses) for youth with lower internal self-regulatory abilities to mitigate risk for overweight and obesity and promote health across childhood and adolescence.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the study participants and their families for their ongoing involvement in this longitudinal project. They also extend their gratitude to the staff and volunteer students who have contributed their time to the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab the University of Nebraska–Lincoln for making data collection possible.
Funding
This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (F31DK122636, R01DK116693, R01DK125651), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA041738), the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH065668), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (F31HD107948) of the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, TTH is supported in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U48DP006396). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Data Sharing and DeclarationParticipants in the present study did not provide consent for their raw data to be shared publicly. However, we have provided access to data in aggregate form (i.e., correlation matrix), and all analysis code is available from the corresponding author upon request.
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L.M.L. developed the study’s aims, completed relevant literature reviews, conducted analyses, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript; R.L.B. developed the study’s aims and contributed to the conceptualization of data collection; C.C.T. developed the study’s aims, contributed to data collection, and conducted preliminary analyses; T.D.J. developed the study’s aims, contributed to the conceptualization of data collection, and was responsible for the project’s data infrastructure; A.L.Y. contributed to the conceptualization of data collection; J.L.H. contributed to the conceptualization of data collection; T.T.H. contributed to the conceptualization of data collection; J.M.N. developed the study’s aims and contributed to the conceptualization of data collection; W.A.M. contributed to the conceptualization of data collection; K.A.E. contributed to the conceptualization of data collection; T.D.N. developed the study’s aims and contributed to the conceptualization of data collection. All authors contributed to and approved the final manuscript.
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Laifer, L.M., Brock, R.L., Tomaso, C.C. et al. Exploring the Interaction Between Preschool Executive Control and Caregiver Emotion Socialization in Predicting Adolescent Weight Trajectories. J. Youth Adolescence 53, 656–668 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01928-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01928-x