The effects of maternal eating disorders on child development

Abstract

The evidence on the effects of maternal eating disorders (ED) on child development is growing and has provided insights on a series of psychopathology, eating and behavioral outcomes (Micali et al., 2014a; 2014b, Easter et al., 2013, 2014). I will firstly present data form my lab highlighting the effects of maternal eating disorders on child psychopathology and development in population-based samples (Micali et al., 2013; Micali et al., 2014). Secondly, I will focus on our work on children of mothers with ED in pregnancy and prior to pregnancy both in clinical samples and in population-based samples. Few studies have focused on the cognitive development of children born to women with ED (active and past). Our group was the first to study cognitive development in infancy and childhood in children born to women with ED as part of a large population-based study of ∼12,000 women (Kothari et al., 2013; 2014, 2015), and a longitudinal clinical sample (Barona et al., 2016). I will then touch upon weight outcomes in children of mothers with active ED behaviors in pregnancy. Altogether these studies highlight an important impact of maternal ED (both active and past) on cognitive and emotional development and weight outcomes. These findings might point to biomarkers of ED or specific effects of pregnancy ED. A summary and conclusion will summarize existing evidence, draw parallels with the literature available in other psychiatric disorders and highlight future research avenues.