title: Emotion regulation is related to children's emotional and external eating.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to examine the associations between 2 types of emotion regulation (reactivity and inhibition) and 2 types of non-hunger-based eating (emotional eating and external eating). Although emotion regulation and eating regulation problems have both been linked to obesity in previous studies, there is little research examining the link between the two, particularly among children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 782 rural second graders (49% girls, 20% American Indian) were followed longitudinally through third grade. During both data collection points, children participated in face-to-face interviews at school using the Children's Emotion Management Scales and the revised Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Correlational analyses revealed that children's emotion regulation was significantly related to both external and emotional eating within and across grades, with reactivity appearing to be more consistently related to eating regulation than was inhibition. Regression analyses showed that second to third grade increases in external and emotional eating were predicted by increases in reactivity to anger and reactivity to worry.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given the established link in previous research between poor behavioral regulation and obesity in children, findings from this study linking child emotional reactivity and emotional and external eating (both forms of behavior dysregulation) are important in informing prevention and treatment programs. Based on these findings, targeting child emotion regulation in addition to behavior regulation skills as part of prevention and intervention programs may improve program effectiveness.
authors.affiliation: Departments of *Human Development and Family Science, †Nutritional Sciences (currently at the Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Greensboro, NC), ‡Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.
authors.forename: Amanda W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Harrist
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hubbs-Tait
authors.forename: Glade L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Topham
authors.forename: Lenka H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Shriver
authors.forename: Melanie C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Page
mesh_terms: D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology