Honors independent studies can seem super intimidating. Last fall, I set out to do a 1-credit HI as an add-on to a course I was already enrolled in. The whole process of setting up a project with the professor and self-pacing my way through a literature review seemed like a lot, but in hindsight, I'm so glad that I chose to do it. The independent study ended up being one of my most memorable academic experiences, and I ended the semester with a literature review that I can be proud of!
For anyone considering doing an independent study to fulfill a couple of honors credits, I say do it! It provides a great opportunity to learn a lot about a topic you find interesting while honing writing and research skills.
Below, you'll see the abstract from my literature review, to give you an idea of the research I did. My research poster is below, too.
Introduction
Obesity is a public health crisis, with 42.4% of adults in the United States and 19.3% of children and adolescents in the United States living with obesity. Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are another public health crisis, with one in six adults having experienced more than four types of ACEs. Despite the gravity of these two issues, research is limited.
Methods
This review used PubMed and CINAHL to search for selected journal articles on the topic published between 2011 and 2021. The search combined search terms, including “adverse childhood experiences,” “child abuse,” “child neglect,” “adolescent obesity,” “teen obesity,” and “body mass index,” and Boolean operators.
Results
The review included nine studies (five cross-sectional, three cohort, and one case-control study) and found an association between ACEs in early childhood and weight status in teen years. Two studies found a stepwise or dose-response relationship between ACEs and weight status, with each increase in the number of ACEs being associated with an increase in BMI or another proxy measure of obesity.
Conclusion
ACEs in early childhood may influence risk of obesity in teen years through mediating factors, like stress. The research suggests a need for prevention campaigns targeting ACEs and indicates that these campaigns would be effective in the long term fight against childhood obesity. More research is needed to determine how individual ACEs vary in the different magnitude and directions of their impacts, how the duration of the ACEs impacts the association, and how potential confounders like socioeconomic status impact the association.
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