Bidirectional Associations between Restrained Eating and Body Mass Index in Middle Childhood.

Meg Lawless,Lenka H Shriver,Glade L Topham,Taren Swindle,Amanda W Harrist,Laura Hubbs-Tait

doi:10.3390/nu13051485

Abstract

The nature of the association between dietary restraint and weight has been examined in adult samples, but much less is known about this relationship among children. The current study examined the transactional associations among restrained eating behavior and weight among boys and girls during middle childhood. Data for this study came from 263 children participating in the Families and Schools for Health Project (FiSH), a longitudinal study of the psychosocial correlates of childhood obesity. Participants were interviewed by trained researchers in their third- and fourth-grade year when they completed questionnaires and anthropometric assessments. Dietary restraint was assessed using the restrained eating subscale of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), and weight was assessed using Body Mass Index z-scores (BMIz). Bidirectional associations between variables were examined using cross-lagged models controlling for children’s sex, ethnicity, and weight in first grade. Results indicated that weight in grade 3 was related to greater dietary restraint in grade 4 (B = 0.20, p = 0.001), but dietary restraint in grade 3 was not associated with weight in grade 4 (B = 0.01, p = 0.64). Neither child sex nor race/ethnicity were associated with BMIz or dietary restraint at either time point. Findings from this study advance the existing limited understanding of eating behavior development among children and show that weight predicts increases in children’s dietary restraint in middle childhood.

Highlights

Recent projections estimate that over 50% of adults will be obese by 2030, a staggering number considering the health and financial burden associated with excess adiposity [1,2].Further, children who are overweight and obese are more likely to remain overweight as adults [3]
The potential mechanism for these findings has been attributed to the fact that individuals who report dieting and weight loss attempts engage unsustainable forms of dietary restraint that leads to binge eating episodes and weight gain over time [15]
The current study contributes to the growing body of literature on the development of eating behaviors in childhood and supports the role of children’s weight status in the development of dietary restraint

Summary

Introduction

Recent projections estimate that over 50% of adults will be obese by 2030, a staggering number considering the health and financial burden associated with excess adiposity [1,2].Further, children who are overweight and obese are more likely to remain overweight as adults [3]. The conscious control of food intake for the purpose of weight management, has been a controversial topic in the literature with regard to its association with weight gain and other negative nutrition outcomes [8,9,10,11]. There is evidence that excessive dietary restriction may alter metabolic functioning, making it difficult for individuals to maintain long-term weight loss [12]. This notion is supported by findings from some longitudinal studies, which indicate that adolescents and adults who reported dieting and weight loss efforts at baseline showed greater weight gain at follow-up and an elevated risk of obesity [13,14]. Experimental investigations, have consistently shown that dietary restrainers are not in negative energy balance, which suggests that dietary restraint is not an accurate indicator of actual restriction of food intake [11,16]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion