Childhood Trauma, Trauma Symptoms, Family Fat Talk in Relation to Adolescent Eating Behavior

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine whether childhood traumatic experience, trauma symptoms, and family discussions about obesity are associated with adolescent eating behavior. In addition, the study examined gender differences. Participating in the study were 726 adolescents (369 – girls, 344 – boys, 13 – no specific gender) aged 11 to 16. They completed the following questionnaires: Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Fink et al., 1995); Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (Briere, 1995); Eating Attitudes Test (Garner et al., 1982); Family Fat Talk Questionnaire (Macdonald et al., 2015). The results showed positive associations between perceived altered eating behaviors and emotional and sexual abuse, depressive and dissociative symptoms, personal and family talk about obesity. Personal conversations about obesity predicted 21% of the variation of the adolescent’s perception of altered eating behavior. The addition of emotional abuse and dissociative symptoms in the regression model increased the explained variance to 25%. Girls reported significantly higher ratings on the study variables.