Poster #106 - Retrospectively Recalled Parental Feeding Behaviors are Related to Adulthood BMI via Influencing Emotional Eating

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Health, Growth, Injury

Integrative Statement

The prevalence of obesity is increasing in an alarming rate (De Onis et al., 2010), making it an important health concern. Maternal feeding practices in childhood years are important predictors of obesity concurrently and longitudinally (Birch & Fisher, 2000). Specifically, individuals who were restricted to eat certain foods in childhood were found to have higher body mass index (BMI) in adulthood (Houldcroft et al., 2016), while pressuring to eat in early childhood years was related to lower BMI in later years (Ellis et al., 2015). Also, it was shown that individuals whose eating was overtly controlled by their parents are more likely to eat unhealthily (Ogden et al., 2006). Yet, the mechanisms through which early child feeding behaviors relate to later BMI and the directionality of effect in this association are less well understood. The current study aimed to investigate the possible mediating role of emotional eating in the relation between early child feeding practices and BMI in young adulthood years, since emotional eating was found to be a significant predictor of BMI in adulthood years (Nguyen-Rodriguez et al., 2008). We collected retrospective reports on child feeding behaviors and concurrent reports on emotional eating and BMI to provide a preliminary understanding on the directionality of the effect. Data was collected from 83 university students (Mage=20.96, SD=2.06, range=18-30) in Turkey. Participants were retrospectively asked to remember their mothers’ feeding behaviors (restrictive feeding, pressure to eat, and overt control over eating) when they were a child (ages 5-10), and they reported concurrent emotional eating via self-report questionnaires. Information on current height and weight was obtained to calculate BMI. Path analysis was conducted to examine the mediational role of current emotional eating between past maternal feeding behaviors and current BMI. Since participant sex was related to BMI (Mmale=26.86, SD=4.07; Mfemale=21.02, SD=3.27; F(1,81)= 35.79, p<.001), it was controlled in the model. Results of the path analysis showed adequate fit to the data; x2(5, N=83)=10.11, ns., CFI=.91, RMSEA=.11 (90% CI=.00-.21). Retrospective maternal restrictive feeding (B=.20, p<.05) and adulthood emotional eating (B=.25, p<.01) were found to be directly related to concurrent BMI. Retrospective overt control (B=.40, p<.001) and pressure to eat (B=-.31, p<.01) were related to concurrent emotional eating directly; and retrospective reports of pressure to eat (B=-.08, BSE=.04, %95 CI = -.15- -.01, p<.05) and covert control (B=.10, BSE =.04, %95 CI=.02-.19, p<.05) were indirectly related to concurrent BMI via concurrent emotional eating. Therefore, findings indicated that individuals who remembered that their food intake was restricted by their mothers in childhood years had higher BMI in young adulthood; while the role of pressure to eat and overt control over eating had an indirect role in later BMI via pressure to eat being related to decreased and overt control being related to increased emotional eating in young adulthood years. Current results provide some preliminary information about the directionality of the influence between BMI and child feeding behaviors and indicate that early child feeding behaviors might have long lasting effects in the weight problems of individuals.

Authors

• Melis Yavuz, MEF University
  Presenting Author

• Reyhan İkan, MEF University
  Non-Presenting Author