The perceived onset of dieting and loss of control eating behaviors in overweight children

Abstract

Objective-The current study investigated the self-reported temporal relationships of dieting, binge eating, and overweight in childhood.Method-One hundred five non-treatment-seeking overweight children ages 6-13 years were interviewed with the children's Eating Disorder Examination (ChEDE) and queried regarding dieting, loss of control (LOC) eating, and overweight history. Questionnaires of depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, and parent-reported problems were completed.Results-Sixty percent of the children reported having attempted at least one diet. These children had higher ChEDE scores (global, p < .001), greater body mass index (BMI) and body fat mass (p ≤ .001), and a trend towards an earlier reported age of overweight onset (p = .06) compared with children who had never dieted. The 29.5% of children who reported LOC eating had significantly higher ChEDE scores (global, p < .001), ineffectiveness, negative self-esteem, and externalizing scores (all ps < .05) compared with those who had never experienced LOC eating. Most children reported becoming overweight before either dieting (79.4%) or experiencing LOC eating (63.6%). Among the 25.7% reporting both dieting and LOC eating, two thirds reported LOC eating before dieting. Participants who reported dieting before overweight had higher negative mood scores (p < . 01). Children reporting dieting before LOC eating had higher ChEDE Weight Concern (p < .01) and global (p < .05) scores.Discussion-For overweight, non-treatment-seeking children, both dieting and LOC eating are common. Dieting precedes the development of LOC eating only one third of the time, but is associated with greater disordered eating cognitions. The relationship between childhood-onset dieting and LOC eating in overweight children requires further investigation to determine the causal pathways for the subsequent development of eating disorders.

Eating behaviors, body image, perfectionism, and self-esteem in a sample of Portuguese girls

“…26 The strength of the present study is its simultaneous attention to all these relevant variables in the same participants. We observed that total ChEAT scores correlated significantly with BMI, corroborating previous studies that found higher scores on the ChEAT questionnaire 27 or other measures of eating pathology 28 among overweight vs. normal-weight children.…”

Eating disorder pathology among overweight treatment-seeking youth: Clinical correlates and cross-sectional risk modeling

“…While only a small minority of the sample met criteria for a BED or another form of EDNOS, approximately one-third endorsed loss of control over eating during the last 3 months, which is comparable to previous studies of treatment-seeking overweight youth (Berkowitz et al, 1993;Britz et al, 2000;Goosens et al, in press;Isnard et al, 2003;Levine et al, 2006;Severi et al, 1993). Furthermore, the suggestion that children who endorse any objective binge eating, independent of episode frequency, exhibit increased eating, shape, and weight concerns, is consistent with the existing literature (Berkowitz et al, 1993;Tanofsky-Kraff et al, 2004;Tanofsky-Kraff, Faden, Yanovski, Wilfley, & Yanovski, 2005). We found that the size of the binge episode was important and related to other types of ED pathology-which is in contrast to the findings from two studies of non-treatment-seeking overweight youth that indicate any loss of control eating is significant (Morgan et al, 2002;Tanofsky-Kraff et al, 2004).…”

Emotion regulation and binge eating in children

“…7 Only a small subset of children and adolescents meet full Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-IV-TR criteria for BED, while the experience of LOC eating and emotional eating seem to be more common. 6,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Research indicates that emotional eating and binge eating in children and adolescents are associated with anxiety, sadness, and anger 6,12,15 which has previously been shown in adults. [16][17][18][19][20][21] Overweight children 8,12,14 and adolescents 9,10,22 with LOC eating were shown to experience greater eating-related distress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms than those without LOC eating.…”

“…51,52 The Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) is a 26-item self report questionnaire of depressive feelings for ages [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Internal consistency of the total score of the German version is high, convergent, and discriminant validity have been demonstrated.…”