Chen Duan-Rung, Chou An-Kuo, Tseng Tung-Sung
Institute of Health Behaviors and Community Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, No. 17, Xu-Zhou Rd., Taipei, 10055, Taiwan; Population Health Research Center, National Taiwan University, 10055, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Pediatrics, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsin-Chu Branch, Hsinchu, 30059, Taiwan; Institute of Health Policy and Management, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10055, Taiwan.
Appetite. 2025 Jan 1;205:107771. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2024.107771. Epub 2024 Nov 15.
Emotional eating has been linked to childhood obesity. A variety of emotions often trigger this form of eating, which has been associated with stress-induced overeating, loss of control eating, and binge eating in children. However, research on how maternal immigration status and feeding practices influence emotional eating in children within Asian contexts is sparse. This study examines the association between maternal immigration status and emotional eating in children, exploring the mediating roles of health literacy and feeding practices.
The study focused on children aged 10-11 and their mothers in Taiwan, utilizing a sample of 2308 mother-child dyads. The Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) was used to assess mothers' feeding practices, while emotional eating was measured using a subscale of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-Revised 18 (TFEQ-R18). Health literacy was evaluated using the Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q12). Confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson's correlation, and Structural Equation Models (SEMs) were employed to explore the potential pathways leading to children's emotional eating.
Children of mothers with foreign nationality demonstrate higher emotional eating scores compared to those with native-born mothers (5.73 vs. 5.35, p = 0.04). These mothers also have significantly lower health literacy levels (35.21 vs. 38.52, p < 0.0001). They are more inclined to use rewarding and pressure-to-eat feeding practices while showing reduced tendencies toward monitoring and restriction. Serial mediation models suggest that maternal foreign nationality influences children's emotional eating primarily by increasing rewarding and pressure-to-eat practices alongside reduced health literacy, which ultimately lowers monitoring practices.
Interventions should improve maternal health literacy and promote healthy feeding practices. Future research should investigate these pathways across various geographic regions and age groups to develop targeted interventions for immigrant families.
情绪化进食与儿童肥胖有关。多种情绪常常引发这种进食方式，它与儿童因压力导致的暴饮暴食、失控进食和暴饮暴食有关。然而，在亚洲背景下，关于母亲移民身份和喂养方式如何影响儿童情绪化进食的研究很少。本研究考察母亲移民身份与儿童情绪化进食之间的关联，探讨健康素养和喂养方式的中介作用。
该研究聚焦于台湾地区10至11岁的儿童及其母亲，采用了2308对母子样本。使用儿童喂养问卷（CFQ）评估母亲的喂养方式，同时使用三因素饮食问卷修订版18（TFEQ-R18）的一个子量表测量情绪化进食。使用健康素养调查问卷（HLS-EU-Q12）评估健康素养。采用验证性因素分析、皮尔逊相关性分析和结构方程模型（SEM）来探索导致儿童情绪化进食的潜在途径。
与本土出生母亲的孩子相比，外籍母亲的孩子表现出更高的情绪化进食得分（5.73对5.35，p = 0.04）。这些母亲的健康素养水平也显著较低（35.21对38.52，p < 0.0001）。她们更倾向于使用奖励和强迫进食的喂养方式，同时监测和限制的倾向降低。系列中介模型表明，母亲的外籍身份主要通过增加奖励和强迫进食的方式以及降低健康素养来影响儿童的情绪化进食，这最终会降低监测行为。
干预措施应提高母亲的健康素养并促进健康的喂养方式。未来的研究应在不同地理区域和年龄组中研究这些途径，以便为移民家庭制定有针对性的干预措施。
