Maternal emotional feeding practices and adolescent daughters' emotional eating: Mediating roles of avoidant and preoccupied coping

- Mothers' and daughters' recollections of emotional feeding were positively related.
- Emotional feeding was related to adolescents' emotional eating.
- Preoccupied coping mediated the link between emotional feeding and emotional eating.

The current study examined the link between early childhood emotional feeding and adolescent girls' emotional eating, using maladaptive coping styles as the underlying mechanisms mediating these associations. We examined adolescent girls' and mothers' retrospective reports of emotional feeding during childhood, as well as adolescent girls' current reports of their coping behaviors (i.e., preoccupied and avoidant) and emotional eating. Findings showed that adolescent girls' and mothers' retrospective reports of early emotional feeding were positively associated with adolescent girls' emotional eating. Preoccupied coping, but not avoidant coping, mediated the associations between early emotional feeding (reported by adolescents and mothers) and adolescents' current emotional eating. In conclusion, findings suggest that early childhood feeding experiences are linked to the development of maladaptive coping and emotional eating among adolescent girls.