Emotional over- and under-eating in early childhood are learned not inherited

Moritz Herle,Silje Steinsbekk,Clare H Llewellyn,Alison Fildes,Fruhling Rijsdijk

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-09519-0

Abstract

Emotional overeating (EOE) has been associated with increased obesity risk, while emotional undereating (EUE) may be protective. Interestingly, EOE and EUE tend to correlate positively, but it is unclear whether they reflect different aspects of the same underlying trait, or are distinct behaviours with different aetiologies. Data were from 2054 five-year-old children from the Gemini twin birth cohort, including parental ratings of child EOE and EUE using the Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire. Genetic and environmental influences on variation and covariation in EUE and EOE were established using a bivariate Twin Model. Variation in both behaviours was largely explained by aspects of the environment completely shared by twin pairs (EOE: C = 90%, 95% CI: 89%-92%; EUE: C = 91%, 95% CI: 90%-92%). Genetic influence was low (EOE: A = 7%, 95% CI: 6%-9%; EUE: A = 7%, 95% CI: 6%-9%). EOE and EUE correlated positively (r = 0.43, p < 0.001), and this association was explained by common shared environmental influences (BivC = 45%, 95% CI: 40%-50%). Many of the shared environmental influences underlying EUE and EOE were the same (rC = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.44, 0.55). Childhood EOE and EUE are etiologically distinct. The tendency to eat more or less in response to emotion is learned rather than inherited.

Highlights

Emotional eating is the tendency to change one’s eating behaviour in response to negative emotions[1]
Research with adults has shown that some people tend to consume more in stressful situations, whereas others experience a decrease in appetite when distressed and eat less[1, 2]
intraclass correlations (ICCs) for environment completely shared by twin pairs (EOE) and emotional undereating (EUE) were calculated for MZ and DZ twin pairs separately to examine the patterns of resemblance for each behaviour

Summary

Introduction

Emotional eating is the tendency to change one’s eating behaviour in response to negative emotions[1]. Null findings have sometimes been reported in cross-sectional studies for both EOE15, 16 and EUE9, 15 Despite their differing associations with weight, EOE and EUE tend to be positively correlated[9, 17, 18], indicating that some children have an underlying tendency to both under- and overeat in response to negative emotions. This raises the question as to whether these two behaviours reflect different aspects of the same underlying trait (i.e. a tendency to both over- and under-eat in response to negative emotion) with a common aetiology, or are distinct traits with different aetiologies. The objectives of this study were to use a twin design to: (i) establish for the first time the relative genetic and environmental contributions to EUE in early childhood, and (ii) establish the extent to which EOE and EUE share a common genetic and environmental aetiology

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion