The mediating role of eating psychopathology in the relationship between unhealthy core beliefs and feeding difficulties in a nonclinical group.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether maternal eating psychopathology mediates the relationship between unhealthy core beliefs and reports of child feeding difficulties.


METHODS
A community sample of 114 mothers of 65 male children and 49 female children between 4 months and 5 years completed the Eating Disorders Inventory-II, (Garner, Eating Disorder Inventory-2 Professional Manual, Odessa, 1991) the Child Feeding Assessment Questionnaire, (Harris and Booth, Monographs in Clinical Pediatrics, Vol 5, 1992) and the Young Schema Questionnaire (Short Form) (Young, Young's Schema Questionnaire: Short Form, Available in electronic form at, http://www.schematherapy.com, 1998).


RESULTS
Drive for thinness significantly mediated the relationship between maternal defectiveness/shame beliefs and food refusal in mothers of daughters, but no mediational relationships were found for mothers of sons in this nonclinical group.


CONCLUSIONS
Maternal drive for thinness mediates the effect of unhealthy beliefs on mothers' tendencies to report feeding difficulties in their daughters.
Blissett
Jackie
J
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. j.blissett@bham.ac.uk
Meyer
Caroline
C
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003469:Culture; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires