Premium
Emotional Feeding and Emotional Eating: Reciprocal Processes and the Influence of Negative Affectivity
Author(s) -
Steinsbekk Silje,
Barker Edward D.,
Llewellyn Clare,
Fildes Alison,
Wichstrøm Lars
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12756
Subject(s) - emotional eating , psychology , negative affectivity , norwegian , developmental psychology , mood , positive affectivity , temperament , eating behavior , personality , clinical psychology , social psychology , obesity , medicine , linguistics , philosophy
Emotional eating, that is, eating more in response to negative mood, is often seen in children. But the origins of emotional eating remain unclear. In a representative community sample of Norwegian 4‐year‐olds followed up at ages 6, 8, and 10 years (analysis sample: n = 801), one potential developmental pathway was examined: a reciprocal relation between parental emotional feeding and child emotional eating. The results revealed that higher levels of emotional feeding predicted higher levels of emotional eating and vice versa, adjusting for body mass index and initial levels of feeding and eating. Higher levels of temperamental negative affectivity (at age 4) increased the risk for future emotional eating and feeding.