Empirical study on parental eating disorders and child development

Abstract

International literature has studied the role of parental eating disorder (ED) on children development, highlighting that it constitutes a relevant risk factor for the onset of offspring's emotionalbehavioural problems. Limited attention has been given to parental Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and its impact on offspring's psychopathology. Thus, further investigations of this clinical manifestation as possible predictor of offspring's psychopathology are needed. The present study aimed to assess the maladaptive outcomes in children of parents with psychopathological risk and psychiatric diagnoses.Specifically, we intended to verify whether offspring of parents who were both diagnosed with BED showed higher affective and behavioural problems, compared with their peers with only one parent diagnosed with BED. We conducted a longitudinal study (T1 18 months old children; T2 36 months old children) on a sample of 100 Italian couple of parents and children (N total = 300), divided into three groups based on the presence of BED diagnosis. Group A, diagnosis in both parents; Group B, diagnosis only in the mothers; Group C, diagnosis only in the fathers. The presence of BED in one or both parents was associated with the emotional and behavioural development in offspring. Particularly, the diagnosis of BED in both parents had a direct effect on infants' affective problems. The offspring of parents diagnosed with BED were more likely to manifest emotional and behavioural difficulties and psychiatric symptoms within the first three years of life.

Longitudinal Study On Parental Psychopathological Risk And Offspring’s Growth Delay

“…Despite these contributions, only few researches deeply explored the relationship between child's psychological functioning and maternal psychopathologies, considering the role of the father as potential risk or protective factor (Cerniglia, Cimino, & Ballarotto, 2014;Erriu, Cerniglia, & Cimino, 2017).…”