Emotional eating is the tendency to eat in response to negative emotions. Prior research has identified a relationship between parenting style and child emotional eating, but this has not been examined in clinical samples. Furthermore, the relationship between specific parenting practices (e.g., parent feeding practices) and child emotional eating has not yet been investigated. The current study examined relationships between child emotional eating and both general and specific parenting constructs as well as maternal symptoms of depression and binge eating among a treatment-seeking sample of overweight children. Participants included 106 mother–child dyads who attended a baseline assessment for enrollment in a behavioral intervention for overeating. Ages of children ranged from 8 to 12 years old. Mothers completed self-report measures of their child's emotional eating behavior, their own feeding practices, and symptoms of depression and binge eating. Children completed a self-report measure of their mothers’ general parenting style. A stepwise regression analysis was conducted to identify the parent variable that was most strongly related to child emotional eating, controlling for child age and gender. Emotional feeding behavior (i.e., a tendency to offer food to soothe a child's negative emotions) was the parent factor most significantly related to child emotional eating. Findings suggest that emotional feeding practices in parents may be related to emotional eating in children. Treatment with overweight children who engage in emotional eating may be improved by targeting parent feeding practices.
Emotional eating, or eating in response to negative emotional states, has been identified as an “obesogenic” trait that contributes to weight gain and, ultimately, obesity (Croker, Cooke, & Wardle, 2011) in both children (Braet & Van Strien, 1997) and adults (Geliebter & Aversa, 2003). In one sample of children enrolled in a healthy eating and activity intervention, 63% endorsed emotional eating (Shapiro et al., 2007). Children who eat for emotional reasons may eat in response to feelings of anger, anxiety, frustration, or depression (Tanofsky-Kraff et al., 2007), and emotional eating may function as an “escape” from negative affect (Heatherton & Baumeister, 1991). Emotional eating appears to be associated with overeating (Van Strien, Engels, Van Leeuwe, & Snoek, 2005) and eating foods high in energy density (Nguyen-Michel, Unger, & Spruijt-Metz, 2007) among adolescents. Among children, emotional eating is associated with eating in the absence of hunger (Moens & Braet, 2007) and loss of control eating, a symptom of eating disorder psychopathology (Goossens, Braet, Van Vlierberghs, & Mels, 2009). Despite this, the relationship between emotional eating and weight status among children is unclear. A comparison of emotional eating among samples of underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese children indicated that emotional eating was most prevalent in the obese, clinical sample (Croker et al., 2011). Other studies have confirmed a significant positive relationship between emotional eating and BMI in children (Braet, Van Strien, 1997 and Webber et al, 2008); however, this relationship was not supported in two additional samples (van Strien, Bazelier, 2007 and van Strien, Oosterveld, 2008).
