Francesconi Marta, Flouri Eirini, Harrison Amy
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University College London, 25 Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AA, UK.
Psychol Med. 2023 Jun;53(8):3701-3710. doi: 10.1017/S003329172200037X. Epub 2022 Mar 1.
The emergence of eating problems during childhood increases the risk for eating disorders (EDs) during young adulthood. Previous studies highlight a relationship between poor self-regulation and onset of eating pathology. In this study, we investigated whether this association is mediated by decision-making difficulties.
To test this hypothesis, we used data from the Millennium Cohort Study. Decision-making performance was assessed with the Cambridge Gambling Task at age 11. Principal components analysis was used to derive an index of ED symptoms at age 14. The trajectories of scores of two subscales of the Child Social Behaviour Questionnaire, Independence and Self-Regulation (ISR) and Emotional Dysregulation (EmotDy), were modelled from ages 3 to 7 years in a latent growth curve analysis. The individual predicted values of the intercept (set at baseline, 3 years) and the slope (rate of annual change) were then used in the mediation analysis.
In our sample of 11 303 individuals, there was evidence for mediation by three measures of decision-making at age 11 (poor quality of decision-making, delay aversion and low risk-adjustment) in the association between EmotDy across ages 3-7 and ED symptoms at age 14 even after the adjustment for relevant covariates. We found no evidence of association between ISR and ED symptoms.
Our findings suggest that emotion regulation processes during childhood may be relevant for the future onset of ED symptoms via their association with decision-making skills. These findings, obtained from a large, representative, sample, shed light on the relationship between self-regulation, decision-making and symptoms of EDs.
儿童期饮食问题的出现会增加青年期饮食失调（EDs）的风险。先前的研究强调了自我调节能力差与饮食病理学发作之间的关系。在本研究中，我们调查了这种关联是否由决策困难介导。
为了验证这一假设，我们使用了千禧队列研究的数据。在11岁时通过剑桥赌博任务评估决策表现。主成分分析用于得出14岁时的饮食失调症状指数。在潜在增长曲线分析中，对儿童社会行为问卷的两个子量表（独立性和自我调节（ISR）以及情绪失调（EmotDy））从3岁到7岁的得分轨迹进行建模。然后将截距（设定为基线，即3岁时）和斜率（年变化率）的个体预测值用于中介分析。
在我们11303名个体的样本中，即使在对相关协变量进行调整后，仍有证据表明，11岁时的三种决策测量指标（决策质量差、延迟厌恶和低风险调整）在3至7岁的EmotDy与14岁时的饮食失调症状之间的关联中起中介作用。我们没有发现ISR与饮食失调症状之间存在关联的证据。
我们的研究结果表明，儿童期的情绪调节过程可能通过与决策技能的关联而与未来饮食失调症状的发作相关。这些从大量具有代表性的样本中获得的结果，揭示了自我调节、决策与饮食失调症状之间的关系。
