Impact of mothers' distress and emotional eating on calories served to themselves and their young children: An experimental study.

Abstract

Parents play a significant role in children's eating behaviours and food environment. Emotional eating (i.e., eating due to/to cope with emotions regardless of hunger) can contribute to excess energy consumption and subsequent weight gain. Yet, there is a paucity of research examining mothers' feeding and eating behaviours in the presence of their young children during times of acute distress. The current study examined whether manipulated maternal mood impacted subsequent eating and parental-feeding in mothers with overweight or obesity with their preschool aged children in a laboratory-based experiment. Mothers (n=47) with overweight or obesity and their preschool aged children were randomized to either an acute distress or control group. After completing a task which manipulated mothers' moods, respectively, dyads were offered a buffet of snack foods. Measures of mothers' reported emotional eating and distress were collected, and calories served and consumed were objectively measured. There were no between-group differences regarding calories served or consumed. Mothers across both groups who reported higher emotional eating served themselves (p=0.014) and their children (p=0.007) less food, and mothers consumed less food (p=0.045). Mothers who reported higher emotional eating and increased acute distress fed their children less food (p = 0.02) and both children and mothers ate less food (p < 0.05). Results suggest that mothers who report emotional eating tendencies may feed their children less food during periods of acute distress.