Relationships between Temperament and eating Behaviours in young Children Sari Bornstein

Background: Children’s eating behavior is an important priority given the prevalence of childhood obesity Differences in child temperament may be a reason why certain children have better relationship with food than others Overweight vs. underweight Feeding problems FOOD APPROACH eating behaviors: food responsiveness, emotional over- eating, enjoyment of food, desire to drink FOOD AVOIDANT eating behaviors: satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, emotional under-eating and food fussiness

Purpose: To examine associations between young children’s temperament and a range of typical eating behaviors, and To examine the association between children’s BMI, eating behavior and temperament

Hypothesis: Children that report having a more difficult temperament would have more food avoidance and less food approach eating behaviors, and Children having a higher BMI would have higher levels of food approach eating behaviors and more emotional temperament

Participants: Included 241 mothers of children aged 3-8 years Excluded from the study if: Missing information Father/male caregiver Information on the mothers: Mean age of mothers: 36 Y.O. (SD 5.72) Mean BMI of mothers: 24 (SD 4.17) *generally healthy weight* Mean education level after 16 Y.O: 4 years (SD 2.82) Information on the children: 55% male, 45% female Mean age: 5 Y.O. 25% underweight, 51% normal weight, 24% overweight/obese White, middle class neighborhoods

Methods: Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) Distributed to nurseries/schools for the parent to fill out, along with background information of the mother and child 35 item questionnaire on 4 food approach eating behaviors: food responsiveness, emotional over-eating, enjoyment of food, desire to drink, and 4 food avoidant eating behaviors: satiety responsiveness, slowness of eating, emotional under-eating, food fussiness Based on a 5-point Likert scale (never to always) Mean scores were calculated EAS Temperament Survey 20 statements assessing 4 dimensions of children’s temperament: shyness, emotionality, sociability & activity Based on a 5-point Likert scale. Higher scores indicated the trait being more typical T-tests used to analyze data Examined differences in child age and gender Girls more emotional than boys & boys more active than girls

Data: Table 1. Descriptive statistics for the whole sample of children on subscales of the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire and EAS Temperament Survey. Children (N = 241) Mean (SD) Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire Food responsiveness 2.20 (0.64) Emotional over-eating 1.72 (0.59) Enjoyment of food 3.86 (0.68) Desire to drink 2.52 (0.96) Satiety responsiveness 2.94 (0.64) Slowness in eating 2.92 (0.83) Emotional under-eating 2.76 (0.90) Food fussiness 2.70 (0.81) EAS Temperament Survey Shyness 2.62 (0.81) Emotionality 2.57 (0.94) Sociability 3.57 (0.65) Activity 4.17 (0.71)

Results: Shyness Emotionality Sociability Activity BMI FOOD APPROACH X Food responsiveness X Emotional over-eating Enjoyment of food Desire to drink FOOD AVOIDANT Satiety responsiveness Slowness in eating Emotional under-eating Food fussiness X indicates a positive correlation X indicates a negative correlation

Summary: The data found supported the claims that: Children with more difficult temperaments would have more food avoidant eating behaviors. Children with higher BMI would have greater food approach eating behaviors. No evidence was found which related children’s BMI to emotional temperament. Emotionality was the only temperament trait that correlated with children’s eating behaviors

Conclusion: Emotional children are more subjected to emotional under- or over- eating Early temperament is likely to be associated with later eating problems Limitations include: reliance on parental reporting, examination of only 4 temperament traits and absence of objective height & weight measurements Feeding practices that parents use with their children is a relative factor in this study, but wasn’t included Further work is needed to explore the findings