(PS6-B36) Maternal Psychopathology During Childhood Predicts Disordered Eating in Adolescence

Eating disorders are lethal mental health conditions with growing prevalence and severity of disordered eating in children. However, little is known about why disordered eating behaviors develop. Because parental anxiety and depression predict other forms of child psychopathology, and maternal disordered eating predicts child disordered eating, parental psychopathology during childhood is a promising avenue in the investigation of risk factors that may lead to disordered eating in adolescence. Further, as youth anxiety and depression typically co-occur with disordered eating, it is important to determine if the presence of child psychopathology interacts with parent psychopathology over time to predict adolescent disordered eating behaviors. Thus, we sought to elucidate longitudinal relationships among parental anxiety and depression during childhood and disordered eating behaviors during adolescence. In addition, we examined whether common forms of child psychopathology (anxiety, depression, and oppositional defiant disorder [ODD]) moderate these relationships.

The current longitudinal study included a community sample of N = 609 parents and their children (children: 45.5% Female; 20.2% non-White and/or Hispanic). Independent variables were parental anxiety and depression assessed when children were ages 3 through 9 (assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV), and child anxiety, depression, and ODD) at age 6. Dependent variables included anorexia nervosa (AN) symptoms at age 15 and youth-reported body dissatisfaction at ages 12 and 15. Parental and child psychopathology was assessed with structured clinical interviews. Multiple linear regressions were conducted with paternal education level and child sex assigned at birth as covariates because of significant associations with the DVs. Full Information Maximum Likelihood procedures were used to estimate missing data; the moderation analyses were pre-registered.

Maternal anxiety and depression in childhood each significantly predicted age 12 body dissatisfaction (B = 1.25, SE = .56, p = .02; B = 1.97, SE = .56, p < .001, respectively). Paternal anxiety and depression did not predict any disordered eating behaviors. Child depression at age 6 significantly moderated the relationship between maternal depression and age 15 AN (B = -.50, SE = .21, p = .02). Finally, age 6 child ODD significantly moderated the relationship between paternal depression and age 12 body dissatisfaction (B = -5.49, SE = 2.15, p = .01) and the relationship between paternal anxiety and age 12 body dissatisfaction (B = -6.21, SE = 2.42, p = .01).

These findings illustrate the importance of considering the role of parental psychopathology in the development of adolescent disordered eating behaviors. Further, these results highlight the need for treatment for parents during the child’s early life to prevent highly impairing disordered eating behaviors from developing in adolescence. Future research should continue to investigate additional factors that may contribute to the development, maintenance, and severity of disordered eating behaviors including early childhood and parental psychopathology.