Intergenerational transmission of appetite: Associations between mother-child dyads in a Mexican population.

Alethia Mariscal-Rizo,Edgar Manuel Vásquez-Garibay,Enrique Romero-Velarde,Clare Heidi Llewellyn,Fatih Özden,Andrea Dominica Smith,Carmen Patricia Curiel-Curiel,Erika Casillas-Toral,Claudia Hunot-Alexander

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0264493

Alethia Mariscal-Rizo, Edgar Manuel Vásquez-Garibay + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264493

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Abstract

The Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) and the Adult Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (AEBQ) measure ‘food approach’ [Food responsiveness (FR); Emotional overeating (EOE); Enjoyment of food (EF); Desire to Drink] and ‘food avoidant’ [Satiety responsiveness (SR); Emotional undereating (EUE); Food fussiness (FF); Slowness in eating (SE)] appetitive traits (ATs) in children and adults, respectively. ‘Food approach’ traits predispose to overweight while ‘food avoidance’ traits provide protection, but little is known about the relationships between parents’ and their offspring’s ATs. The aim was to examine the associations between maternal and child appetitive traits, using the AEBQ-Esp and CEBQ-Mex adapted for use in Mexican populations. Sociodemographic data, weights and heights of mothers and their children (aged 3–13 years), who were recruited from a teaching hospital in Guadalajara, Mexico, were measured. Mothers completed both the AEBQ-Esp and the CEBQ-Mex. The CEBQ-Mex was developed, and its reliability was tested using Cronbach’s alpha and Omega, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to assess its validity. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used to assess associations between mothers’ and children’s Ats. The sample included 842 mother-child dyads (mother’s mean age = 34.8±SD6.9 years, BMI 29.7±6.1 kg/m2; children’s mean age = 8.5 ±SD2.5 years, BMIz 1.5±1.6). Internal reliability was moderate to high [Cronbach alpha = .68-.86; Omega = .71-.87] for the CEBQ-Mex and validity was confirmed for an 8-factor model through CFA [RMSEA = 0.065; CFI = 0.840, NFI = 0.805; IFI = 0.842; and χ2(df = 532) = 2939.51, p < 0.001]. All but one of the children’s appetitive traits showed small to moderate, significant correlations with their mother’s counterpart [FR (r = .22; p<001); EOE (r = .30; p < .001); EF (r = .15; < .001); SR (r = .16; p < .001); EUE (r = .34; p < .001) and FF (r = .14; p < .001). Only SE was not significantly associated with maternal SE (r = .01; p>.05). ATs tend to run in families, signalling the intergenerational transmission of eating behaviours. These may be useful targets for family-wide interventions to support the development and maintenance of healthy eating behaviours in childhood.

Highlights

Appetitive traits characterise an individual’s ability to self-regulate their food intake across multiple contexts and domains
The Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) is a widely used psychometric instrument; the most commonly applied tool to study appetitive traits in children and one which was purposefully developed to measure these behaviours in relation to risk of developing overweight or obesity [2]
It consists of 35 items that measure four ‘food approach’ traits, which characterise a more avid appetite and a greater interest in food (Food Responsiveness, Emotional OverEating, Enjoyment of Food and Desire to Drink), as well as four ‘food avoidance’ traits that indicate a smaller appetite, better appetite regulation, and lower interest in food (Satiety Responsiveness, Emotional Under-Eating, Food Fussiness and Slowness in Eating)

Summary

Introduction

Appetitive traits characterise an individual’s ability to self-regulate their food intake across multiple contexts and domains They shape our drive to start or stop eating in response to food cues, the tendency to eat more or less in response to negative emotion, and our overall enjoyment of food. The CEBQ is parent-reported for children aged between 3 and 13 years It consists of 35 items that measure four ‘food approach’ traits, which characterise a more avid appetite and a greater interest in food (Food Responsiveness, Emotional OverEating, Enjoyment of Food and Desire to Drink), as well as four ‘food avoidance’ traits that indicate a smaller appetite, better appetite regulation, and lower interest in food (Satiety Responsiveness, Emotional Under-Eating, Food Fussiness and Slowness in Eating). The same appetitive traits, with the exclusion of the Desire to Drink subscale, are included in the Adult Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (AEBQ), a self-report measure consisting of 30 items [3, 4]

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