Children of parents with BED have more eating behavior disturbance than children of parents with obesity or healthy weight

Abstract

Objective A limited literature suggests an association between parental eating disorders and child eating-disorder behaviors although this research has focused primarily on restrictive-type eating disorders and very little is known about families with binge-eating disorder. Methods The current study focused on parents (N=331; 103 fathers and 226 mothers), comparing parents with core features of binge-eating disorder (BED; n=63) to parents with obesity and no eating disorder (OB; n=85) and parents with healthy-weight and no eating disorder (HW; n=183). Results Parents with BED were significantly more likely than OB and HW parents to report child binge eating, and more likely than HW parents to report child overeating. Parents with BED felt greater responsibility for child feeding than OB parents, and felt more concern about their child's weight than OB and HW parents. Dietary restriction of the child by the parents was related to child binge eating, overeating, and child overweight, and parental group was related to child binge eating (parental BED), overeating (parental BED) and child weight (parental OB). Conclusion Parents with BED report greater disturbance in their children's eating than OB and HW parents, and OB parents report higher child weight than HW parents. This suggests that it is important to consider both eating-disorder psychopathology and obesity in clinical interventions and research. Our cross-sectional findings, which require experimental and prospective confirmations, provide preliminary evidence suggesting potential factors in families with parental BED and obesity to address in treatment and prevention efforts for pediatric eating disorders and obesity.

Driven exercise in the absence of binge eating: Implications for purging disorder

“…Additionally, samples have greater diversity in geography and demographic characteristics than undergraduate samples (25–27). Mechanical Turk has been used in psychological and psychiatric research (28), including eating disorder research (29, 30). To be eligible to complete the survey, participants had to be at least 21 years old.…”

“…Mechanical Turk has been used in psychological and psychiatric research (Sheehan, Dubke, & Corrigan, 2017), including eating disorder research (Cunningham, Pearman, & Brewerton, 2016;Lydecker, & Grilo, 2017). To be eligible to complete the survey, participants had to be at least 21 years old.…”

Food Parenting Practices among Parents with Overweight and Obesity: A Systematic Review

“…BED is the most prevalent eating disorder associated with obesity among adults and adolescents [9,15] where the transmission of disordered eating has been illustrated in research. Parents with obesity, reporting binge-eating disorder (BED) behaviours, are significantly more likely to also report overeating, and binge-eating behaviours in their children than parents without BED behaviours [16]. Furthermore, children of mothers with overweight and obesity exhibit higher levels of emotional eating than children of healthy-weight mothers [17].…”

Food Parenting Practices Among Parents with Overweight and Obesity: A Systematic Review

“…BED is the most prevalent eating disorder associated with obesity among adults and adolescents [9,15] where the transmission of disordered eating has been illustrated in research. Parents with obesity, reporting binge-eating disorder (BED) behaviours, are significantly more likely to also report their child binge-eating, and overeating than parents without BED behaviours [16]. Furthermore, children of mothers with overweight and obesity exhibit higher levels of emotional eating than children of healthy-weight mothers [17].…”