Maternal intrusiveness in early childhood predicts children’s BMI-SDS 6 years later

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Introduction: Previous research indicates that children who experience low quality mother-child interactions are at greater risk to develop overweight and obesity (e.g. Anderson et al., 2011, 2012; Rhee et al., 2006, Wu et al., 2011). These studies mainly focussed on aspects such as maternal sensitivity or responsiveness. It is also known that maternal intrusiveness is associated with less optimal developmental outcomes in children (e.g. Clincy & Mills-Koonce, 2013; Swanson et al., 2000; Treyvaud et al., 2016), potentially due to impairing children’s self-regulation (e.g. Spruijt et al., 2016). However, intrusiveness has rarely been investigated in the context of children’s weight development (Lumeng et al., 2012). Hence, this prospective study aimed to evaluate whether maternal sensitivity and maternal intrusiveness during mother-child-interactions in early childhood would predict children’s weight (BMI-SDS) at primary school age.
Hypotheses: First, in line with previous research, we hypothesized that higher maternal sensitivity would predict lower BMI-SDS in children. Second, we hypothesized that higher maternal non-intrusiveness (i.e. lower intrusiveness) would predict lower BMI-SDS in children.
Study population: This study included two assessment points (approx. 6 years apart) and a sample of N=116 mothers and their children aged 5 to 47 months at t1 (M=24.00, SD=11.36, 56 girls) from a community sample.
Methods: At t1, we measured maternal weight and height to calculate maternal BMI and mothers filled in questionnaires on sociodemographic information. Information on children’s height and weight at birth were taken from official booklets including routine medical check-ups for children (“U-Heft”). We videotaped mother-child interactions during free play and coded maternal sensitivity and non-intrusiveness with the Emotional Availability Scales (4th edition, Biringen, 2008). At t2, we measured weight and height of children to calculate children’s BMI-SDS. In the analyses, we statistically controlled for maternal BMI and education assessed at t1.
Results: By applying regression analyses, we found that higher maternal non-intrusiveness (β =-.23, p=.014) - but not higher maternal sensitivity - predicted lower BMI-SDS in children at t2 when entered as a sole predictor into the analysis. This effect remained significant when control variables were added (see Table 1). Furthermore, higher maternal BMI was associated with higher child BMI-SDS, whereas there was no significant effect for maternal education. Overall, all variables explained up to 25% of the variance. To examine the contribution of maternal sensitivity and non-intrusiveness to changes in BMI-SDS between birth and t2, we applied further regression analyses adding child BMI-SDS at birth as a further predictor. Whereas there was no significant effect of maternal sensitivity, maternal non-intrusiveness negatively predicted change in child BMI-SDS (see Table 2). These results point out that improving mother-child interaction with a focus on maternal intrusive behavior could be a fruitful way to prevent obesity development in children.

Authors

• Sarah Bergmann, University of Leipzig & International Psychoanalytic University Berlin
  Presenting Author

• Franziska Schlensog-Schuster, University of Leipzig
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kai Von Klitzing, Uniklinikum Leipzig
  Non-Presenting Author

• Annette M Klein, Universität Leipzig
  Non-Presenting Author