Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 73, Issue 9, November 2011, Pages 1323-1331
Social Science & Medicine

Parenthood and trajectories of change in body weight over the life course

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.08.014Get rights and content

Abstract

Scholars call for greater attention to social contexts that promote and deter risk factors for health. Parenthood transforms social contexts in a myriad of ways that may influence long-term patterns of weight gain. Life course features of parenthood such as age at first birth, parity, and living with a minor child may further influence weight gain. Moreover, the social and biological features of parenthood vary in systematic ways for women and men, raising questions about how social contexts might differentially affect weight patterns by gender. We consider how parenthood influences trajectories of change in body weight over a fifteen year period (from 1986 to 2001) with growth curve analysis of data from the Americans’ Changing Lives Survey, conducted with adults aged 24 and older in the contiguous United States (N = 3617). Findings suggest that parents gain weight more rapidly than the childless throughout the study period and that this weight gain occurs for both men and women. Men and women who have their first child earlier or later than about age 27 have accelerated weight gain, living with a minor child is associated with heavier weight for men than women, and parity is associated with greater weight gain for women than men. We conclude that parenthood contributes to a long term, cumulative process of weight gain for American women and men but life course factors that accelerate this process may differ by gender.

Highlights

► Identifying social factors that cause weight gain is important because excess weight contributes to morbidity and mortality risk. ► Longitudinal data from the USA show how various facets of parenthood influence long-term trajectories of weight gain in adulthood. ► Parents gain weight more rapidly than the childless throughout the life course. ► Early or late timing of parenthood, greater parity, and living with young children further accelerate weight gain. ► Social aspects of parenthood contribute to a long-term, cumulative process of weight gain for American women and men.

Introduction

Ideally, for health and longevity, one would maintain a trim and stable body weight throughout adulthood (Breeze, Clarke, Shipley, Marmot, & Fletcher, 2006). Unfortunately, most adults in post-industrial nations gain weight fairly rapidly at least through midlife (Adams and Schoenborn, 2006, Rennie and Jebb, 2005). Even modest weight gain is associated with increased morbidity and mortality (Breeze et al., 2006) and incremental weight gain throughout life can add up substantially over time. Scientifically, an important goal is to identify social contexts that are associated with significant weight change over the life course.

Research on health behavior, including behaviors associated with weight gain, has been limited by a focus “on individual health-related behaviors (or ‘life styles’), without due consideration of the social contexts in which health behaviors occur and become socially patterned” (Glass & McAtee, 2006:1651). Social contexts shape health risks by serving to “constrain, limit, reward, and induce the behaviour of individuals” in systematic ways (Glass & McAtee, 2006). Family contexts may be particularly influential in shaping adults’ body weight (Sobal, Rauschenbach, & Frongillo, 2003). Studies have shown effects of marital status (Sobal et al., 2003, Umberson et al., 2009), pregnancy (e.g., Amorim, Rossner, Neovius, Lourenco, & Linne, 2007), and parity (Weng, Bastian, Taylor, Moser, & Ostbye, 2004) on weight gain. For example, the transition to parenthood has been shown to foster women’s weight gain (Gunderson & Abrams, 1999). However, the longer-term effects of parenthood on body weight are largely unknown; early weight gain may be ephemeral or set a long-term and cumulative trajectory of weight gain into motion. We work from a life course perspective (Elder, Johnson, & Crosnoe, 2003) to argue that parenthood alters social contexts at the familial level—constraining, limiting, rewarding, and inducing health practices that influence weight change over time.

A life course approach emphasizes that contexts vary systematically across social groups in ways that give rise to different health behavior trajectories. In particular, parenthood imposes a different set of demands and constraints on men and women that may lead to gendered trajectories of weight gain. Given the greater burden of pregnancy and child-rearing for women, one might assume that parenthood affects weight gain only for women. However, past research points to the substantial “civilizing” impact of parenthood on men’s risky health habits, such as smoking and drinking, and the effects of parenthood on men’s weight patterns are rarely considered (Weng et al., 2004). We explore not only how parenthood, per se, influences weight trajectories, but also how other life course features of parenthood (e.g., timing of first birth) influence the degree to which parenthood slows, stabilizes, or accelerates weight change. We consider how parenthood shapes trajectories of change in body weight with a national panel survey of Americans over a fifteen year period, examine gender differences in parenthood and weight trajectories, and test several possible explanations (e.g., exercise, stress) for the effects of parenthood on body weight.

Section snippets

A gendered life course perspective on parenthood and body weight

A key principle of the life course perspective is that of “linked lives,” the idea that individuals in key relationships influence one another throughout life (Elder et al., 2003). The linked lives of parents and children shape social contexts over the life course in ways that accumulate to influence health outcomes as people age (Milkie, Bierman, & Schieman, 2008). Certainly, the linked lives of parents and children operate differently for men and women throughout life. In addition to the

Data

We analyze four waves of the Americans’ Changing Lives (ACL) national panel survey conducted in the United States. The original sample (age 24–96 in 1986) was obtained using multistage stratified area probability sampling with an oversample of African Americans, persons over age 59, and married women with husbands over age 64. Face to face interviews lasting approximately 90 min were conducted in 1986 (Time 1 (T1) N = 3617), 1989 (Time 2 (T2) N = 2867) and 1994 (Time 3 (T3) N = 2398), with a

Results

Descriptive information is presented in Table 1. At T1, respondents had an average of 2.6 children and 16 percent of the sample was childless. Thirty-one percent of the sample had a minor child at home, 7% had a minor child living in a separate residence, 15% had a child over age 18 living at home, and 55% had an adult child living independently. Descriptive information regarding other variables is also presented in Table 1.

Results from unconditional growth curve models with no covariates (not

Discussion

People in industrialized nations tend to gain weight, at least through late midlife (Adams & Schoenborn, 2006), and our results suggest that parenthood may steepen these weight trajectories and raise their peak. Although the difference in annual rates of gain between U.S. parents and non-parents may not be noticeable in the short-run, these differences appear to become substantial over the course of adulthood, for both women and men.

Given the power of social contexts to influence health

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by U.S.A. National Institute on Aging grant R01 AG026613 (PI: Debra Umberson) and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant 5 R24 HDO42849 (PI: Mark Hayward) awarded to the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

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