Early life adversity, pubertal development, and eating disorder symptoms among adolescents: A mediation analysis

Exposure to early life adversity is a risk factor for disordered eating, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship are still relatively unknown. The aim of the current study was to determine if there is a relationship between early life adversity and eating disorder symptoms within an Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development℠ Study subsample, and whether age at mid-pubertal development indirectly effects this relationship. An indirect effect model was analyzed using a sample of 2,468 racial/ethnically diverse adolescents to determine whether early life adversity scores at Baseline (ages 9-10) predicted eating disorder symptoms at Year 4, and whether this relationship is mediated by age at mid-pubertal development. Sex assigned at birth, race/ethnicity, site, and parental education were included in the model as covariates; family identification was a random intercept. Findings indicated that early life adversity did not significantly predict age at mid-pubertal development, but this relationship was trending in a direction that indicated that early life adversity is related to an earlier age of mid-pubertal development. A younger age at mid-pubertal development was associated with increased eating disorder symptoms at Year 4. Additionally, age at mid-pubertal development was found to be a significant mediator of the relationship between early life adversity and eating disorder symptoms in the whole sample. Additional indirect effect analyses indicated that the significant indirect effect exists in females only when separated by sex. These results suggest that age at mid-pubertal development has a critical role in facilitating the pathway from adversity to the development of eating disorder symptoms, especially in girls during early adolescence.