Children of mothers with eating disorders manifest disturbed eating habits and attitudes

A recent study has suggested that the children of mothers with eating disorders manifest disturbed eating habits by in middle childhood.Disturbance in child development has been associated with parental psychiatric disorders. In particular, recent studies of young children of mothers with eating disorders have confirmed such a risk of developmental disturbance. However, little research has been conducted on the effects of maternal, post-natal eating disorders in middle childhood - the stage of development when eating habits tend to emerge. Stein et al. conducted a prospective, longitudinal study of 33 primaparous mothers who had experienced an eating disorder during the post-natal year and 23 mothers who had not experienced an eating disorder were controls. Families were recruited when the child was aged 1 year. The aim of the study was to assess whether maternal eating disorders identified in the year following the birth of the child were associated with the development of disturbed attitudes and eating habits in the child at age 10 years.Psychopathology of the mother, father and children was assessed, and interaction between the mother and child was observed. Eating disorder psychopathology was assessed using the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) for the mothers and the Child version of the EDE (Child-EDE) for the children.The results revealed that 10-year-old children of mothers with eating disorders scored higher on the Child-EDE sub-scales relating to shape concern, weight concern and dietary restraint compared with the control group; they also scored higher on the global EDE score. However, there was little evidence of increased general psychopathology. Children's eating disturbance was found to be associated with the length of exposure to the mother's eating disorder.It was also found that at 5 years, significantly more mealtime conflict was observed between index children and mothers, compared with controls, and that these children's eating disturbance were associated with the length of exposure to this mealtime conflict."Although there was no evidence that children had frank eating disorders at 10 years of age, it is of concern that, even at such a young age, they were more likely to be dieting and holding over-valued ideas about body shape and weigh in their scheme of self-evaluation," the authors stated. They emphasised that the results suggest that "maternal eating disorders might have a specific adverse effect on the children's eating habits and attitudes," and concluded that they may be at heightened risk of developing frank eating disorder psychopathology.Reference...