Abstract
SummaryBackgroundEmotional over‐eating (EOE) and emotional under‐eating (EUE) are common behaviours that develop in early childhood and are hypothesised to play a role in weight status. Data from a British twin cohort demonstrated that environmental, rather than genetic, factors shape individual differences in both behaviours in early childhood.ObjectiveThe aim of this current study was to replicate this finding in a subsample (n = 398) of 4‐year‐old twins selected for high or low risk of obesity from another population‐based cohort of British twins (the Twins Early Development Study).MethodsParental ratings of child EOE and EUE were analysed using genetic model fitting.ResultsGenetic influence was not significant, while shared environmental factors explained 71% (52–79%) of the variance in EOE and 77% (62–85%) in EUE. The two behaviours correlated positively (r = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.44, 0.61), and about two‐thirds of the shared environmental factors influencing EOE and EUE were the same (r C = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.51, 0.85).ConclusionsEmotional eating in childhood is shaped by the home family environment; parents are therefore promising intervention targets.
Highlights
Stress and negative emotions can have differential impacts on appetite, with some individuals experiencing decreased, and some increased, desire to eat [1]
Data were from a subsample of the Twins Early Devel- Prior to analyses, Emotional over-eating (EOE) and emotional under-eating (EUE) scores were opment Study [9], which included 214 pairs of twins regressed by gestational age, age at measurement
Data for EOE and EUE were available for 394 twins (197 pairs) when the children were 4 years old (Table 1)
Summary
Stress and negative emotions can have differential impacts on appetite, with some individuals experiencing decreased, and some increased, desire to eat [1] These behaviours, termed emotional over-eating (EOE) and emotional under-eating (EUE), have been implicated in the development of childhood weight [2] and eating disorders [3]. Data from the Gemini twin study (2402 families; 4804 twins) showed that both EOE [4] and EUE [5] are shaped primarily by the shared family environment, not by genes, in early childhood This contrasts strongly with other eating behaviours found to be under substantial genetic control in early life [6,7]. Parents indicated the ethnicity of their children by choosing between White and non-White
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