Parental emotional support trajectories and the risk of adolescent overweight or obesity

We used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n = 6108; 50.9% males; 16.7% Black, 8.1% Hispanic, 75.2% Non-Black, Non-Hispanic) to examine associations between parental emotional support trajectories at 0-15 years and overweight or obesity at 15-19 years and explore the effects of timing and cumulative exposure to low parental emotional support on overweight or obesity. Parental emotional support was assessed using the Home Observation Measurement of the Environment and adolescent overweight or obesity was defined using the International Obesity Task Force cut-offs. Latent Class Analysis was used to identify parental emotional support trajectories and Poisson regression was used to examine associations under study. Low parental emotional support in childhood increased the risk of adolescent overweight or obesity, with gender-based differences. Highlights We examined associations between parental emotional support at 0-15 years and overweight or obesity at 15-19 years We used Latent Class Analysis to identify parental emotional support trajectories and Poisson regression to examine associations under study Low parental emotional support in childhood increased the risk of adolescent overweight or obesity, with gender-based differences