Retrospective reports of parental feeding practices and emotional eating in adulthood: The role of food preoccupation.
The current study examined the role of food preoccupation as a potential mediator of the associations between parental feeding behaviors during childhood (i.e., restriction for weight, restriction for health, emotion regulation) and emotional eating in adulthood. Participants (N = 97, Mage = 20.3 years) recalled their parents' feeding behaviors during early and middle childhood and reported on current experiences of food preoccupation and emotional eating. Findings revealed that recalled parental feeding behaviors (restriction for weight, restriction for health, emotion regulation) and food preoccupation were positively associated with later emotional eating (correlations ranged from 0.21 to 0.55). In addition, recalled restriction for weight and emotion regulation feeding were positively associated with food preoccupation, r = 0.23 and 0.38, respectively. Further, food preoccupation mediated the association between emotion regulation feeding and later emotional eating (CI95% = 0.10 to 0.44). These findings indicate that parental feeding practices in childhood are related to food preoccupation, and that food preoccupation mediates the association between emotion regulation feeding in childhood and emotional eating in adulthood.
University of Michigan, United States; Eastern Michigan University, United States. Electronic address: cctan@umich.edu.
Cin Cin
CC
Tan
The University of Texas at Dallas, United States.
Holly
H
Ruhl
Eastern Michigan University, United States.
Chong Man
CM
Chow
Eastern Michigan University, United States.
Lillian
L
Ellis
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet / Q000523:psychology; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
Craving; Emotional eating; Feeding practices; Food preoccupation