Emotion regulation difficulties during pregnancy mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotional, external, and restraint eating

Abstract

Purpose

Childhood maltreatment is a common and severe form of stress associated with compromised functioning in women including emotion regulation difficulties and eating behaviors associated with negative health outcomes. Although pregnancy is a sensitive period for women's health, mechanisms by which childhood maltreatment may drive eating behaviors during pregnancy remain unknown. The aim of this study was to determine if emotion regulation difficulty was a mechanism by which women's childhood maltreatment leads to emotional, external, and restraint eating during pregnancy and which types of maltreatment drive these associations.

Methods

Women (N = 446) were recruited during pregnancy based on experiences of pregnancy stress, including intimate partner violence. They reported on history of childhood maltreatment and emotion regulation difficulties and eating behaviors in pregnancy. We tested if emotion regulation difficulties mediated associations between childhood maltreatment and emotional, external, and restraint eating in pregnancy.

Results

Maternal childhood maltreatment was associated with greater emotion regulation difficulties and, in turn, greater severity of emotional, external, and restraint eating during pregnancy. Emotional abuse and neglect were each positively associated with emotion regulation difficulties and, in turn, all three eating behaviors.

Conclusions

Emotion regulation difficulties may be a mechanism by which childhood maltreatment leads to emotional, external, and restraint eating during pregnancy. Interventions should address emotion regulation difficulties in women with histories of childhood emotional maltreatment and neglect as a way to mitigate these eating behaviors in pregnancy.