title: Maternal mentalization affects mothers' - but not children's - weight via emotional eating.
abstract: Previous research on childhood obesity has shown that maternal obesity is an important risk factor for this malady. Because biological and environmental factors are able to explain the transgenerational transmission of obesity only in part, psychological risk factors (e.g., emotional eating) have become more important in recent research. As maternal mentalization - which lays the foundation for the child's ability to regulate his/her emotions - has not yet been investigated, we examined the effects of mentalization on maternal and childhood obesity. By investigating groups of obese (n = 30) and normal-weight (n = 30) mothers and their children aged 18 to 55 months, we found, contrary to our expectations, that obese mothers' mentalization (Reflective Functioning Scale) was similar to that of mothers with normal weight and that mentalization showed no direct effect on the child's weight. However, we found hints of an indirect influence of mentalization via emotional eating on mothers' but not on children's weight and via mother-child attachment (Attachment Q-Set) on children's weight. Possible reasons for these inconclusive effects are discussed.
authors.affiliation: a University Medical Center IFB Adiposity Diseases , Leipzig , Germany.|b Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics , University of Leipzig , Leipzig , Germany.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Keitel-Korndörfer
authors.affiliation: a University Medical Center IFB Adiposity Diseases , Leipzig , Germany.|b Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics , University of Leipzig , Leipzig , Germany.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bergmann
authors.affiliation: c Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology , University College London , London , UK.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nolte
authors.affiliation: a University Medical Center IFB Adiposity Diseases , Leipzig , Germany.|b Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics , University of Leipzig , Leipzig , Germany.
authors.forename: Verena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wendt
authors.affiliation: b Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics , University of Leipzig , Leipzig , Germany.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: von Klitzing
authors.affiliation: b Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics , University of Leipzig , Leipzig , Germany.
authors.forename: Annette M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Klein
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: Reflective Functioning; attachment; childhood obesity; maternal obesity; mentalization