Childhood Sexual Abuse Moderates the Relationship Between Obesity and Mental Health in Low-Income Women

Overview

Journal Child Maltreat

Date 2015 Nov 7

PMID 26541476

Citations 8

Authors

Jennifer C Ramirez

Stephanie Milan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We examined whether a history of self-reported childhood sexual abuse (CSA) moderates the relationship between obesity and mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder) in an ethnically diverse sample of low-income women. A community sample of 186 women completed self-report measures and had their weight and height measured. Body mass index and CSA had an interactive effect on all mental health measures, such that obese women with a CSA history reported substantially higher levels of all symptoms. These results give greater specificity to the obesity-mental health link reported in previous studies and provide possible directions for targeted intervention.

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