School of Applied Psychology & Menzies Health Institute of Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.
Int J Eat Disord. 2018 Dec;51(12):1312-1321. doi: 10.1002/eat.22971. Epub 2018 Nov 28.
Drawing from the extended UNICEF model of children's eating and weight problems and growing empirical evidence, exposure to adversity may place mothers at increased risk for child feeding difficulties.
The aim of the present study of a community sample of mothers was to examine whether maternal psychological distress, exposure to stressful events, and poor self-rated health in their child's first year of life were associated with breastfeeding duration, as well as concurrent and prospective feeding problems.
MATERIALS & METHODS: Participants were 5107 Australian mother-child dyads from the infant cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Data for the present study was drawn from questionnaires completed by the mother at Wave 1 and Wave 2 (conducted 2 years apart). On average, at Wave 1, mothers and children (51% male) were aged 31 years and 9 months, respectively; while at Wave 2 their ages were 33 years and 34 months, respectively.
Maternal psychological distress and poorer self-rated health were uniquely predictive of concurrent and prospective child feeding difficulties, while poorer self-rated health was also concurrently associated with a shorter duration of breastfeeding.
These findings suggest that poorer maternal functioning poses a significant risk for early child feeding difficulties, and highlights the potential benefit of screening and early intervention for mothers experiencing emotional and physical health problems.
Further research is needed that takes a broad view of maternal functioning, and examines reciprocal interactions between maternal and child characteristics in understanding the development of child feeding problems.
借鉴儿基会扩展的儿童饮食和体重问题模型以及不断增加的经验证据，逆境暴露可能会使母亲面临更多的儿童喂养困难。
本研究以社区样本中的母亲为研究对象，旨在探讨母亲在孩子生命的第一年中经历的心理困扰、压力事件以及自我评估的孩子健康状况是否与母乳喂养时间以及同期和前瞻性的喂养问题有关。
参与者是来自澳大利亚儿童纵向研究（LSAC）婴儿队列的 5107 对母婴。本研究的数据来自母亲在第 1 波和第 2 波（相隔 2 年进行）完成的问卷。平均而言，在第 1 波时，母亲和孩子（51%为男性）的年龄分别为 31 岁 9 个月和 9 个月；而在第 2 波时，他们的年龄分别为 33 岁 3 个月和 34 个月。
母亲的心理困扰和较差的自我评估健康状况是同期和前瞻性儿童喂养困难的独特预测因素，而较差的自我评估健康状况也与母乳喂养时间较短有关。
这些发现表明，母亲功能较差会对早期儿童喂养困难构成重大风险，并强调了对经历情绪和身体健康问题的母亲进行筛查和早期干预的潜在益处。
需要进一步研究，以广泛关注母亲的功能，并研究母亲和孩子特征之间的相互作用，以理解儿童喂养问题的发展。
