Testing for racial/ethnic differences in the association between childhood socioeconomic position and adult adiposity.
OBJECTIVE
We tested the association between 2 measures of childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) and adult body mass index (BMI), stratified by race and ethnicity.


METHODS
We used regression analyses to examine associations between adult BMI and 2 measures of childhood SEP (maternal education and whether the head of the child's household was working class), adjusted for a robust set of adult SEP measures, in a sample of 2068 adults from Los Angeles County, California.


RESULTS
Maternal educational attainment was associated with a lower median adult BMI among Whites (8% decrease for high school diploma and 9% decrease for a college degree, compared with no high school diploma). A maternal high school diploma was associated with a 6% decrease in median adult BMI among Hispanics and an 11% decrease among Blacks. Our measure of childhood working-class status was not correlated with adult BMI.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that childhood SEP is independently associated with adult BMI. However, our results also suggest that the effect may depend on which measures of SEP are used and that some aspects of childhood SEP may matter more for adult BMI than others.
Trotter
Latonya J
LJ
Princeton University, Sociology Department, Wallace Hall, Room 107, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. ltrotter@princeton.edu
Bowen
Deborah J
DJ
Beresford
Shirley A A
SA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015141:Los Angeles / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001741:Black or African American
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