Classes of lifetime adversities among emerging adult women by race/ethnicity and their associations with weight status in the United States

This cross-sectional study examines the association of childhood and adolescent/adult adversities with obesity across four racial/ethnic groups among emerging adult women aged 18 to 25 (n = 9310). Latent class analysis was used to identify racial/ethnicity-specific classes arising from childhood and adolescent/adult adversity indicators in the 2015 and 2018 College Student Health Surveys (sampled from Minnesota, U.S.) Distal outcome procedure and Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars methods were used to assess each class's association with body mass index (BMI) and obesity probability. Models were adjusted for post-secondary school type and parental education. We identified 7 classes for White women, 4 classes for Asian and Latina women, and 5 classes for Black women. Weight distributions of Black and Latina women leaned towards “overweight”, whereas White and Asian women's BMI leaned towards “normal weight.” Latina and Black women had a wider BMI range (~5 kg/m²) between classes with the highest versus lowest BMI than White and Asian women (~3 kg/m²), suggesting a stronger association between adversities and BMI. For Asian, Black, and White women, the “Low Adversities” class had the lowest obesity prevalence, while the “High Lifetime Adversities” class had the highest prevalence. In contrast, Latina women had the lowest obesity prevalence in the “High Adolescent/Adult Adversities & Low Childhood Adversities” class, and highest prevalence in the “Household Mental Illness” class. Results indicate that racial/ethnic disparities in obesity-related measures are reduced when racial/ethnic groups experience low adversity. Future research should explore tailored adversity interventions that consider adversity exposure differences across race/ethnicity as a strategy for reducing obesity risk.