Associations of adolescent emotional and loss of control eating with 1-year changes in disordered eating, weight, and adiposity.

OBJECTIVE: Adolescent emotional-eating, referring to eating in response to negative affective states, is frequently reported by those with loss of control (LOC) eating. Although LOC eating has been shown to predict exacerbated disordered eating and excess weight/adiposity gain, the extent to which emotional-eating, either alone or in combination with LOC, predicts adverse outcomes has not been determined. Thus, we examined associations of baseline emotional-eating with changes in disordered eating, BMI, and adiposity over 1-year, and to what degree the presence or absence of baseline LOC moderated these associations.
METHODS: 189 non-treatment-seeking youth (15.4 ± 1.4y; 66% female; 67% non-Hispanic White, 38% overweight [BMI ≥ 85th %ile]) completed the emotional-eating Scale for Children/Adolescents and the Eating Disorder Examination interview at baseline and again at 1-year. Air displacement plethysmography assessed adiposity at both time points.
RESULTS: Baseline emotional-eating alone was not significantly associated with the development of objective binge eating or changes in disordered eating attitudes, BMI or adiposity 1-year later. However, baseline emotional-eating interacted with the presence of baseline LOC in the prediction of 1-year outcomes. Among adolescents with LOC eating, greater baseline emotional-eating was related to increased disordered eating attitudes (p = .03), BMI (p = .04), and adiposity (p = .04) at 1-year, after correcting for false discovery rate. DISCUSSION: Emotional-eating among youth also reporting LOC was associated with adverse outcomes over 1-year. Adolescents who report both behaviors may represent a subset of individuals at especially high risk for exacerbated disordered eating and excess weight gain.