Abstract
Eating disorders have early origins, and there could be a continuum between childhood eating behaviors, such as overeating, and long-term disordered eating, but this remains to be shown. BMI, desire for thinness and peer victimization could influence this continuum, but their interactions are unknown. To fill this gap, the study used data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (N = 1511; 52% girls), in which 30.9% of youth presented a trajectory associated with high disordered eating from 12 to 20 years. The results support an indirect association between overeating at age 5 and disordered eating trajectories, with different mediation processes observed between boys and girls. The findings underscore the importance of promoting healthy body images and eating behaviors among youths.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all study participants and families for their contribution to this work. We would also like to thank Chloé Pierret for her assistance with the statistical analyses.
Funding
The Quebec Statistics Institute, the Quebec Government’s Ministries of Health, Education, and Family Affairs, the Lucie and André Chagnon Foundation as well as the Robert-Sauvé Research Institute of Health and Security at Work supported the QLSCD. The Fonds de Recherche du Québec- Santé, and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Sainte-Justine Research Centre also contributed to this study’s funding. While conducting this research, EB was a recipient of a doctoral research award from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec- Santé. LB is supported by a career award (chercheur boursier senior) from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec- Santé.
Data Sharing DeclarationThe data that support the findings of this study are available from The Research Unit on Children’s Psychosocial maladjustment (GRIP) but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of the GRIP.
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E.B. analyzed and interpreted the data, generated the figures and table, and drafted the manuscript; S.C. designed, initiated and directed the longitudinal cohort; L.D. designed, initiated and directed the longitudinal cohort; F.V. designed, initiated and directed the longitudinal cohort; M.B. designed, initiated and directed the longitudinal cohort; R.E.T. designed, initiated and directed the longitudinal cohort; L.B. designed the specific study described in this manuscript, analyzed and interpreted the data, drafted the manuscript and supervised the study described in this manuscript. All authors revised, edited and approved the final version of the manuscript.”
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Breton, É., Côté, S.M., Dubois, L. et al. Childhood Overeating and Disordered Eating From Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study on the Mediating Role of BMI, Victimization and Desire for Thinness. J Youth Adolescence 52, 1582–1594 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01796-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01796-5