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RESEARCH PRODUCT

How does eating in the absence of hunger in children relate to child's BMI, inhibitory control and to maternal controlling feeding practices?

subject

description

International audience; Young children have an innate ability to self-regulate their food-intake by following their inner sensations of hunger and satiation. Children's temperamental traits and environmental factors, such as controlling feeding practices, can alter their self-regulation abilities and can induce weight gain in the long-term. The current study aimed to study how young children's eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) is related to their level of inhibitory control, body mass index (BMI) and maternal controlling feeding practices (food as reward, restriction for health, restriction for weight control). Mothers of 621 French children aged 2.00-6.97 years (51% boys, M = 4.11 years, SD = 1.34) completed a questionnaire with items from validated questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Based on the literature, separate models were run for restriction for weight control and restriction for health, and the link between EAH and maternal restriction was estimated in two directionalities: “child to parent” and “parent to child”. The results showed a significant positive association between children's EAH and their BMI z-scores. Restriction for health and restriction for weight control were differently linked to EAH and to children's BMI z-scores. Namely, low child inhibitory control, food as reward and restriction for health were identified as risk factors for EAH. Restriction for weight control was not linked to EAH, but was predicted by child BMI z-scores. Our results suggest that interventions aiming to reduce children's EAH, could consider training children's general self-regulation, their self-regulation of intake, and/or promoting adaptive parental feeding practices.