The Effects of Child Maltreatment on Children's Body Mass Index in South Korea

Title:The effects of child maltreatment on children’s body mass index in South Korea

Abstract  

Background and Objective: Child maltreatment has been alarming issue in Korea as the reported number of children who were neglected or abused has increased, for instance, 6,403 in 2012 and 10,027 in 2014. While earlier studies have investigated various consequences of child maltreatment, very little is known on the possible associations between child maltreatment and physical health for children in Korea. Thus, this study has a purpose of investigating a longitudinal trajectory of adolescent obesity and the associations between child maltreatment and obesity, using the national data collected in Korea.

Methods: We employed data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey from a large-scale national sample in Korea. This study used data collected at waves 2 through 5 since the KCYPS began to include child maltreatment items at wave 2. Out of 2,378 participants, we selected 1,829 adolescents who provided their weight and height information across the waves as a final analysis sample. A continuous measure of the Body Mass Index is a dependent variable BMI was calculated based on the conventional formula [kg/m²]. The three items were summed to calculate an overall measure of neglect and the four items were summed to calculate an overall measure of abuse. We conducted latent growth curve modeling to examine whether child abuse and neglect controlling for contextual factors predicts developmental trajectories of BMI.

Results: The unconditional model of repeated measure of BMI provides reasonable model fit to the data (χ² (1) = 5.97, CFI = 0.99, TLI= 0.99, RMSEA= 0.05, N=1892). The mean of BMI is 18.35 and the mean of BMI slope is 0.64 indicating that the mean rate of BMI significantly increased by 0.64 over time. The conditional model of repeated measure of BMI provides reasonable model fit to the data (χ² (1) = 5.97, CFI = 0.99, TLI= 0.99, RMSEA= 0.05, N=1892). The results show that child abuse significantly predicts the growth rate of BMI controlling for other variables (b=0.03, t=2.10). In addition, the conditional model tested covariates. Mother’s health status (b= -0.17, t= -2.79) and youth’s health status (b= -0.12, t= -2.48) predict growth rate of BMI and also peer isolation (b= 0.02, t= 1.68) marginally predict growth level of BMI.

Discussion and Implications: This study is one of the first studies to examine longitudinal growth trajectories of child BMI in Korea. We were able to identify the course of body fat indicated by BMI and learn the effect of child abuse. Based on the research, child welfare needs to address weight problems in maltreated children as a part of community effort. School-based programs and community outreach interventions should promote parents’ awareness of the risks of unhealthy development as a result of child maltreatment. Parental supervision has been proposed as a buffer against child weight problems and obesity. Thus, child welfare policy needs to promote parents become better able to supervise for their children at high-risk families.