Stress, emotional eating behaviour and dietary patterns in children

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Psychology
• Child Nutrition
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Psychological stress may influence children's dietary patterns, promoting unhealthy choices and contributing to overweight.
• Emotional eating behavior is a potential mediator in the relationship between stress and diet, particularly in early childhood.
• Understanding these dynamics in children is crucial as dietary habits established in childhood often persist into adulthood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the interrelationship between psychological stress, emotional eating behavior, and dietary patterns in young children.
• To investigate whether emotional eating mediates the association between stress and diet in the pediatric population.

Main Methods:

• The study involved 437 children aged 5-12 years from the ChiBS cohort.
• Stress was assessed using questionnaires on stressful events, emotions, and behavioral problems.
• Data on emotional eating behavior and dietary patterns (frequency of consuming fatty foods, sweet foods, snacks, fruits, and vegetables) were collected.

Main Results:

• Psychological stress indicators (events, negative emotions, problems) were positively associated with emotional eating behavior.
• Childhood problems showed positive associations with the consumption of sweet and fatty foods.
• Stressful events were negatively associated with fruit and vegetable intake.
• Overall, stress was linked to emotional eating and unhealthier dietary patterns in children.

Conclusions:

• Psychological stress is associated with emotional eating and less healthy dietary patterns in children, potentially contributing to overweight development.
• Emotional eating behavior was not found to mediate the relationship between stress and dietary patterns in this cohort of children.
• Further research is needed to fully elucidate the complex interplay between stress, eating behaviors, and diet in childhood.