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This research aims to understand how early life environment influences the relationship between body composition and mental health in adolescents.

November 20, 2025Communications PsychologyOpen Access

Early life environment moderates association of body composition and internalizing problems in adolescence

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Large-scale analysis finds adversity worsens body composition link to internalizing problems, highlighting protective factors.

This research aims to understand how early life environment influences the relationship between body composition and mental health in adolescents.
Analyzed data from 10,446 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study aged 10-15.
Examined associations between waist-to-height ratio and internalizing problem scores through random slopes analysis.
Considered early-life adversity and protective environments at family, community, peer, and school levels as moderators.
Higher early-life adversity correlates with increased coupling between waist-to-height ratio and internalizing problems.
Protective factors in the environment, particularly from family and community, significantly mitigate the negative effects of adversity.
Body composition is linked to mental health issues in youth, with environmental factors impacting this relationship.

Buss et al. (2025) studied this question.

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