Parental Rejection as a Predictor of Emotional Eating After Inpatient Weight Loss Treatment for Youngsters

Research reported that 14 months after a 10-month inpatient multidisciplinary weight loss treatment for children and adolescents, 51.9% of the participants had regained more than 10% over the ideal BMI (Braet, Tanghe, De Bode, Franckx, & Van Winckel, 2003). [...]studying the risk factors that contribute to youngsters' relapse after treatment could be considered an important research topic. In both studies, the emotional eating style of the youngsters had not changed between pretest and posttest or 14-month follow-up. Since the youngsters' emotional eating style seems hard to change in treatment, and emotional eating might be related to youngsters' weight regain after treatment, we wanted to examine which determinants might contribute to youngsters' emotional eating after weight loss treatment. According to Gibson (2006), eating food rich in sugar and/or fat leads to a temporary increase in positive mood and reduction of stress, because these types of food induce sensory pleasure. [...]as a preliminary analysis, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted with the PT variables, comparing the FU dropouts (n = 39) with those who participated at FU (n = 52).