Loughborough University
Leicestershire, UK
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School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

LUCRED News

Children are less fussy thanks to family meals

Following a presentation at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section annual conference, Faye Powell and Dr Claire Farrow talk to the media about Faye’s research findings from her PhD regarding the importance of family meals. Please see the press releases below:

http://www.science2day.co.uk/feature

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44684398/ns/today-today_health/#.ToKICoVLfpE

The Value of Family Mealtimes

In a recent interview with Channel 4, Dr Claire Farrow talks to Jo Frost about the value of family mealtimes, see: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/jo-frost-extreme-parental-guidance/articles/family-time-teatime-is-for-talking

Loughborough University launches Eating Disorders Research Centre.

Loughborough University has launched a new research centre to help tackle eating disorders and childhood obesity. LUCRED (Loughborough University Centre for Research into Eating Disorders) is one of the largest research centres in its field. Led by Dr Caroline Meyer, who has been conducting research into eating disorders for the last 15 years, LUCRED has 11 full-time academics and researchers. Speaking about the launch of LUCRED Dr Meyer said: "The creation of LUCRED is formal recognition of the extensive academic expertise at Loughborough University in the area of eating disorders, obesity, appetite and childhood eating behaviours. Our global partnerships will enable us to make a real difference to how these conditions are understood and treated." More...

Recent research findings

Child eating and feeding behaviour

The benefits of being in a functional romantic relationship with a co-parent have recently been shown to be related to children’s adaptive eating behaviours, while having a poorer quality romantic relationship can be associated with the use of more maladaptive parenting behaviours within the context of child feeding.

Haycraft, E. & Blissett, J. (2010). The role of parents’ romantic relationship warmth and hostility in child feeding practices and children’s eating behaviours. Maternal and Child Nutrition. DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-8709.2009.00212.x

The presence of low to moderate levels of eating disorder symptoms in mothers of young children has been found to be related to mothers’ use of less adaptive parenting styles.

Haycraft, E. & Blissett, J. (2010). Eating disorder symptoms and parenting styles. Appetite. 54(1), 221–224. DOI:10.1016/j.appet.2009.11.009

Symptoms of obsessive compulsiveness can have a direct impact upon parental feeding behaviours

Farrow, C., & Blissett, J. (2009). Do obsessive compulsive symptoms mediate the relationship between maternal eating psychopathology and restrictive feeding? International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Adult eating behaviour

Non-clinical levels of disordered eating are associated with deficits in the recognition of emotional expressions, particularly anger. This could have a negative impact on social relationships and might represent a risk factor for the development of more serious eating psychopathology.

Ridout, N., Thom, C., & Wallis, D.J. (2010). Emotion recognition and alexithymia in females with non-clinical disordered eating. Eating Behaviors, 11, 1-5.

Female restrained eaters overeat chocolate under stress. However, if offered both chocolate and a low fat alternative (dried fruit) they do not overeat, and even selectively suppress intake of the dried fruit. This could have implications for interventions to promote healthy food choices in those who are susceptible to stress-induced eating.

Wallis, D.J., & Hetherington, M.M. (2009). Emotions and eating: self-reported and experimentally-induced changes in food intake under stress. Appetite, 52, 355-362.

Beliefs about whether discrimination is "normal" or not influence the impact that weight based discrimination has upon maladaptive eating behaviours in students.

Farrow, C., & Tarrant, M. (2009). Weight-based discrimination, body dissatisfaction and emotional eating: the role of social group norms. Psychology and Health, 24(9), 1021-1034.