Mindful parenting in pediatric obesity

Disordered eating behaviors and pediatric obesity are considered serious public health problems given the increasing prevalence worldwide and the consequences for the psychological functioning and for the physical health of children/adolescents. Nevertheless, there is an incomplete knowledge about the multidimensionality of the psychosocial mechanisms that have a critical role on children/adolescent’s eating behavior, which makes the existent interventions for treating these problems to fail in maintaining long-term positive results.

One of the mechanisms that have a key role on the engagement in disordered eating behaviors is emotional regulation. Additionally, parents also play a crucial role as being the primary caregivers and therefore responsible for feeding and for the psychological and emotional development of their child. In this context, the adoption of a mindful posture in parenting may be very promising, since it may promote positive relations between the parent and the child and also promote psychological strategies that may facilitate an healthier eating behavior in the child.

The present research aims to understand:

• how parents’ and children/adolescents’ emotion regulation are related with children/adolescents’ disordered eating behaviors;
• how mindful parenting may be associated with the engagement in disordered eating behaviors by children/adolescents.