(PS6-A15) Adverse Childhood Experiences in Relation to Disordered Eating in Young Adulthood: Do Current Supportive Family Dynamics Play a Buffering Role?

Disordered eating is a serious public health concern that affects many adolescents and young adults, particularly young women. The links between disordered eating and childhood abuse are well established; however, the extent to which other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; e.g., physical and emotional neglect; household dysfunction) are linked to disordered eating is poorly understood. Although ACEs have been associated with a wide range of negative health outcomes, not all young people who experience adverse events will go on to develop adverse outcomes. Protective factors, including current perceived familial support, may help mitigate the effects of earlier risk exposure.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of current positive family dynamics on the presence of disordered eating behavior in young women reporting a history of ACEs. Women are at increased risk of exposure to adverse events as well as disordered eating. We hypothesize that young women exposed to childhood adversity will be more likely to report eating disorder symptoms and we expect this risk will be mitigated by positive current family dynamics.

Participants include 101 young women recruited from a research subject pool at a large university (ages 18-25; 63% White; planned n=450). All completed a set of measures assessing their adverse childhood experiences (ACE-Q; Felitti et al., 1998), disordered eating (Eating Attitudes Test-26; Garner et al., 1982), and the perceived quality of their family relationships (PROMIS-Family Relationships; Bevans et al., 2017). Preliminary analyses revealed that 26.7% of the sample reported 4 or more ACEs, indicative of high-risk for poor health outcomes. The most common type of ACE was having a parent who was mentally ill or had attempted suicide (49.5%), followed by parental divorce/separation (38.6%) and psychological abuse (38.6%). There was a modest positive correlation between total ACEs and disordered eating behaviors (r=.21, p=.035); when examined by subscale, childhood emotional and physical neglect was associated with disordered eating (r=.19, p=.05), whereas childhood abuse and household dysfunction were not. Consistent with expectations, young women with a significant trauma history reported poorer family relationship quality compared to those without significant exposure (t=4.09, p < .001) and there was a moderate negative correlation between total ACEs and family dynamics (r=-.51, p < .001). We examined whether the relationship between childhood ACEs and disordered eating was moderated by current positive family dynamics using Haye’s PROCESS macro (version 4.0). We found no evidence of moderation.

Exposure to childhood adversity was common within our sample, and was modestly associated with eating disorder symptoms. That association may have largely been driven by experiencing emotional and physical neglect (e.g., feeling unloved, not having enough to eat). Inconsistent with expectations, current family support did not buffer the association between ACES and eating disorder symptoms. If replicated, these findings suggest that families may confer risk for the development of eating problems, but having supportive current relationships may not undo the effects of childhood exposure.