title: Teaching our children when to eat: how parental feeding practices inform the development of emotional eating--a longitudinal experimental design.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Emotional eating in children has been related to the consumption of energy-dense foods and obesity, but the development of emotional eating in young children is poorly understood.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We evaluated whether emotional eating can be induced in 5-7-y-old children in the laboratory and assessed whether parental use of overly controlling feeding practices at 3-5 y of age predicts a greater subsequent tendency for children to eat under conditions of mild stress at ages 5-7 y.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-one parent-child dyads were recruited to participate in this longitudinal study, which involved parents and children being observed consuming a standard lunch, completing questionnaire measures of parental feeding practices, participating in a research procedure to induce child emotion (or a control procedure), and observing children's consumption of snack foods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children at ages 5-7 y who were exposed to a mild emotional stressor consumed significantly more calories from snack foods in the absence of hunger than did children in a control group. Parents who reported the use of more food as a reward and restriction of food for health reasons with their children at ages 3-5 y were more likely to have children who ate more under conditions of negative emotion at ages 5-7 y.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parents who overly control children's food intake may unintentionally teach children to rely on palatable foods to cope with negative emotions. Additional research is needed to evaluate the implications of these findings for children's food intake and weight outside of the laboratory setting. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01122290.
authors: From the School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom (CVF); the School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom (EH); and the School of Psychology, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom (JMB).
authors: Claire V
authors: CV
authors: Farrow
authors: From the School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom (CVF); the School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom (EH); and the School of Psychology, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom (JMB).
authors: Emma
authors: E
authors: Haycraft
authors: From the School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom (CVF); the School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom (EH); and the School of Psychology, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom (JMB).
authors: Jackie M
authors: JM
authors: Blissett
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: child emotional eating; child feeding; longitudinal; obesity; snack food