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Emotional feeding as interpersonal emotion regulation: A developmental risk factor for binge-eating behaviors.

Author
Abstract
:

Emotional feeding is an interpersonal emotion regulation strategy wherein people provide food to others as a means of influencing the recipient's emotional response. Parental emotional feeding has been linked to higher levels of emotional eating in children and adolescents using cross-sectional, retrospective, and prospective designs; however, there is little research on emotional feeding as a developmental risk factor for emotional eating and binge-eating behaviors in adolescence and adulthood. This Idea Worth Researching article explores the rationale for studying emotional feeding as a lifespan construct and its potential implications for understanding eating disorder pathology. Specifically, it offers suggestions for examining emotional feeding as a predictor of emotional eating and binge-eating behavior across the lifespan, assessing potential intergenerational transmission pathways, and researching similarities in feeding styles and emotional eating across a variety of relationships beyond the parent-child dyad.

Year of Publication
:
2019
Journal
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The International journal of eating disorders
Volume
:
52
Issue
:
5
Number of Pages
:
515-519
ISSN Number
:
0276-3478
URL
:
https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23044
DOI
:
10.1002/eat.23044
Short Title
:
Int J Eat Disord
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