1Empirical data indicate that the risk for childhood obesity and overweight increases when one or both parents are overweight or obese. Such an association, however, cannot be entirely explained only by biological factors. Based on available literature, we hypothesized that maternal emotion regulation might play a role in explaining the intergenerational transfer of overweight and obesity. We conducted a quasi-experimental, longitudinal study: (step I) during the third trimester of pregnancy of 65 Italian women (33 overweight and 32 non-overweight), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale were administered to assess the quality of their emotion regulation strategies; and (step II) seven months after the delivery, the feeding interactions between the participants and their babies were evaluated in a 20-minute video-recording, by using the Italian version of the Observational Scale for Mother–Infant Interaction during Feeding. When compared to the non-overweight group, the overweight group had more difficulties in emotion regulation, was more psychologically distressed, and had poorer feeding interactions with their babies. Perhaps more importantly, the extent to which the participants were suffering difficulties in emotion regulation during pregnancy predicted, significantly, and beyond the effects of pre-pregnancy maternal weight, the quality of the mother–child feeding interactions 7 months after the delivery.
Overweight and obesity consist of an imbalance between calorie intake and expenditure. Overweight individuals have a Body Mass Index (BMI; weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters) between 25 and 30 while obese individuals have a BMI greater than 30. These rapidly increasing conditions are primarily diet-induced, resulting from sustained excess of energy dense, high fat, and refined carbohydrate content foods, as well as insufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables. The increasingly sedentary lifestyles and changing environments which restrict opportunities for physical activity, also contribute to their development.
Despite the high prevalence of these phenomena, to date the relationship between weight and psychological health remains controversial and poorly understood. A number of risk factors for overweight and obesity have been linked to demographic aspects, dietary habits, social/environmental and cognitive factors (Van der Merwe, 2007). However, the specific psychological mechanisms through which these risk factors affect the attitude toward food and lifestyle, and consequently behavior and weight, have not been completely clarified.
Most of the research efforts are currently directed toward addressing the complex etiology underlying these conditions, by integrating genetic, physiological and psychological components. A growing body of research, in particular, shows that a central role in the development of obesity and overweight might be played by the parent–child relationship. Indeed, the risk among children to be overweight when one or both parents are overweight or obese dramatically increases as compared to peers from non-obesogenic environments, and such an association cannot be entirely explained by biological factors alone. Many researchers, indeed, have demonstrated that factors such as breast feeding duration (Agras & Mascola, 2005), use and length of bottle feeding, smoking during pregnancy (Owen, Martin, Whincup, Smith, & Cook, 2005), parental style, and their modeling of eating behaviors constitute major risk factors in promoting overweight during childhood and in later ages (Frankel et al., 2012). Furthermore, it has been reported that the provision, or not, of the emotional context of the feeding interaction with the baby (as being permissive or demanding, available or poorly tuned), strongly affects the eating habit of the child (Farrow and Blissett, 2008 and Ventura and Birch, 2008).
