The effect of low parental warmth and low monitoring on disordered eating in mid-adolescence: Findings from the Australian Temperament Project

Isabel Krug; Ross M King; George J Youssef; Anisha Sorabji; Eleanor H Wertheim; Daniel Le Grange; Elizabeth K Hughes; Primrose Letcher; Craig A Olsson

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2016.05.015

The effect of low parental warmth and low monitoring on disordered eating in mid-adolescence: Findings from the Australian Temperament Project

Appetite. 2016 Oct 1:105:232-41. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2016.05.015. Epub 2016 May 17.

Authors

Isabel Krug¹, Ross M King², George J Youssef³, Anisha Sorabji², Eleanor H Wertheim⁴, Daniel Le Grange⁵, Elizabeth K Hughes⁶, Primrose Letcher⁷, Craig A Olsson⁸

Affiliations

¹ Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victorian Australia, 14-20 Blackwood Street, VIC, 3010, Melbourne, Australia. Electronic address: Isabel.krug@unimelb.edu.au.
² Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, School of Psychology, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC, 3125, Australia.
³ Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, School of Psychology, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC, 3125, Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia.
⁴ School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Plenty Road & Kingsbury Drive, Melbourne, Bundoora, VIC, 3086, Australia.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry and Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Box 0503, LH Suite 245, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0503, USA.
⁶ Murdoch Children's Research Institute, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia.
⁷ Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia.
⁸ Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victorian Australia, 14-20 Blackwood Street, VIC, 3010, Melbourne, Australia; Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, School of Psychology, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC, 3125, Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia.

PMID: 27212673
DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2016.05.015

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the interactions between low parental warmth and monitoring at age 13-14 years and disordered eating attitudes and behaviours at age 15-16 years.

Method: Data on 1300 (667 females) adolescents and their parents were drawn from The Australian Temperament Project (ATP), a 30 year (15 wave) population based longitudinal study of social-emotional development. Parent participants completed surveys on parenting practices in late childhood, and adolescent participants reported disordered eating using the drive for thinness and bulimia subscales of the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) and an additional body dissatisfaction scale. Interaction was examined on the additive scale by estimating super-additive risk; i.e., risk in excess of the sum of individual risks.

Results: For boys, neither parental warmth or monitoring, nor their interaction, was related to disordered eating. For girls, low parental warmth (alone) was associated with bulimic behaviours. In contrast, exposure to both low monitoring and warmth was associated with ∼3½-fold, ∼4-fold and ∼5-fold increases in the odds of reporting body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness and bulimia, respectively. For body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness, risk associated with joint exposure exceeded the sum of individual risks, suggesting an additive interaction between parenting styles.

Conclusion: Further investment in family-level interventions that focus on promoting parental monitoring behaviour and a warm parent-child relationship remain important strategies for preventing a range of disordered eating behaviours in adolescents.

Keywords: Additive interaction; Adolescents; Disordered eating; Monitoring; Parenting style; Warmth.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adolescent Development*
Adolescent Nutritional Physiological Phenomena* / ethnology
Australia / epidemiology
Body Dysmorphic Disorders / epidemiology
Body Dysmorphic Disorders / ethnology
Body Dysmorphic Disorders / prevention & control
Body Dysmorphic Disorders / psychology
Bulimia / epidemiology
Bulimia / ethnology
Bulimia / prevention & control
Bulimia / psychology
Cohort Studies
Feeding Behavior* / ethnology
Feeding Behavior* / psychology
Feeding and Eating Disorders / epidemiology*
Feeding and Eating Disorders / ethnology
Feeding and Eating Disorders / prevention & control
Feeding and Eating Disorders / psychology
Female
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Models, Psychological*
Needs Assessment
Parent-Child Relations* / ethnology
Parenting / ethnology
Parenting / psychology
Parents
Prevalence
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Risk
Thinness / epidemiology
Thinness / ethnology
Thinness / prevention & control
Thinness / psychology