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Methods: Participants are from the Seattle Social Development Project who were followed from ages 10-39 years. The sample of 808 youth and their parents were originally recruited from elementary schools in 1985. The present study focused on participants whose primary racial group was determined by self- and school-report as White (n=381), Black (n=207), or Asian (n=171). Structural equation models tested pathways linking childhood SES to trajectories of BMI from ages 24-39. Mediators included teacher reported overweight status at ages 10-14, self-reported internalizing problems at ages 10-16, self-reported substance use at ages 10-18, and self-reported educational attainment by age 21. Multiple group modeling was used to test potential racial differences in the hypothesized pathways.
Results: Analyses suggest that there were differences in mechanisms linking childhood SES and BMI across racial groups. For Whites, higher childhood overweight status and lower educational attainment were significant mechanisms linking childhood SES to increased adult BMI which increased at a faster rate. For Asians, behavioral health and health in adolescence were significant predictors of BMI in adulthood, but were not significantly related to childhood SES. For Blacks, the relationship between childhood SES and BMI was not well explained in this model as hypothesized mechanisms were not predictive of adult BMI growth factors.
Conclusions: Multiple group models suggest that the etiological pathways linking childhood SES to BMI significantly vary across racial groups. These results stress that the link between child SES and later obesity may operate differently for different racial groups, and that further research is particularly needed to identify such mechanisms for Blacks in order to better inform obesity prevention efforts.