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Are Stressful Developmental Processes of Youths Leading to Health Problems Amplified by Genetic Polymorphisms? The Case of Body Mass Index

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Abstract

Although previous research has documented the adverse influence of early socioeconomic disadvantage on youths’ physical health outcomes and the increase in health inequalities over the early life course, little is known about genetically informed sequential life course developmental processes leading to health outcomes. Consistent with the life course-stress process perspective, we hypothesized that early socioeconomic adversity initiates a stress process over the early life course. This process involves the disrupted transition from adolescence to young adulthood, which increases the risk of health problems during young adulthood. Behavioral, psychosocial, and genetic data were collected from 12,424 adolescents (53 % female) over a period of 13 years participating in the nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Early cumulative socioeconomic adversity and the polygenic influence were measured using composite indices. The study provided evidence for stressful developmental processes of adolescents, involving parental rejection, depressive symptoms, and adolescents’ precocious transition. This longitudinal process was initiated by early cumulative socioeconomic adversity and eventuated with young adults’ increased body mass index (BMI). Furthermore, the study provided evidence for the influence of life context–gene interactions (G × E) on adolescents’ precocious development and young adult BMI (after controlling for the lagged measure) amplifying the stress process over the early life course. These findings emphasize the need for incorporating individual genetic characteristics in a longitudinal context into life course stress research. Furthermore, policies focused on eradicating childhood/adolescent adversities are necessary as well as youth programs and policies that promote youth competencies that aid in their successful transition to young adulthood.

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Acknowledgments

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Author contributions

K.A.S.W. conceived of the study, conducted the preliminary analyses, and drafted the manuscript; C.W.O. participated in the interpretation of the data and manuscript writing and preparation; A.O. helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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  1. Department of Human Development and Family Science, 103 Family Science Center I, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Kandauda (K.A.S.) Wickrama

  2. Department of Human Development and Family Science, 261 Dawson Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Catherine Walker O’Neal

  3. Department of Human Development and Family Science, 208 Family Science Center I, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Assaf Oshri

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  1. Kandauda (K.A.S.) Wickrama
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Correspondence to Catherine Walker O’Neal.

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Wickrama, K., O’Neal, C.W. & Oshri, A. Are Stressful Developmental Processes of Youths Leading to Health Problems Amplified by Genetic Polymorphisms? The Case of Body Mass Index. J Youth Adolescence 43, 1096–1109 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0109-8

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