AI Insight
This study of 377 Romanian adults found that childhood emotional abuse and emotional neglect predict increased food reward drive, which in turn leads to disordered eating behaviors including uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, and cognitive restraint. After controlling for other factors, emotional neglect emerged as the strongest predictor, with food-specific reward drive serving as the key mechanism linking childhood adversity to adult eating problems. The effect was most pronounced for uncontrolled and emotional eating patterns.
Why it matters
These findings suggest that interventions targeting food reward responses could help prevent or treat disordered eating in adults who experienced childhood emotional neglect. Understanding this specific pathway may inform more effective clinical approaches for addressing eating problems rooted in early adverse experiences.
Understand the Science
IntroductionDisordered eating is a subclinical constellation of symptoms—including uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, and cognitive restraint—that constitutes an important risk factor for eating disorders. We examined the associations between childhood maltreatment and disordered eating symptoms and whether food reward drive is a mediator in this relationship. Domain-general anticipatory pleasure was examined as an alternative mediator.MethodsRomanian adults (N = 377; 85.4% women; mean age = 27.19 years) completed a retrospective assessment of childhood maltreatment at baseline, and 1 month later, they were assessed for food reward drive, domain-general anticipatory pleasure, and disordered eating symptoms.ResultsEmotional abuse and emotional neglect uniquely predicted higher food reward drive. This, in turn, predicted uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, and cognitive restraint, yielding significant indirect effects for both types of maltreatment. After covariate adjustment, only the indirect pathway from emotional neglect to disordered eating via food reward drive remained significant. The results were replicated in a sensitivity analysis excluding participants with potentially biased (minimized) maltreatment reports, in which emotional neglect was the only domain showing a significant indirect effect. Symptom-specific models indicated the strongest pathways for uncontrolled and emotional eating, with weaker effects for cognitive restraint. Domain-general anticipatory pleasure showed an additional, smaller indirect effect in the opposite direction for emotional neglect.DiscussionThese findings highlight food-specific reward drive as a mechanism linking childhood emotional neglect to disordered eating in adults.
Source: Childhood adversity and disordered eating: the mediator role of food reward drive