Childhood maltreatment and disordered eating: The mediating role of emotion regulation

Childhood maltreatment is pervasive and can result in life-long adverse physical and mental health challenges, including a heightened risk for disordered eating. Current treatments for disordered eating have limited long-term success, partly because the psychological processes involved are not well understood. The current research examined two different components of emotion regulation (expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal) and three components of cognitive emotion regulation (intrusive thoughts, thought suppression attempts, and successful thought suppression) as potential psychological mechanisms mediating the relationship between various forms of childhood maltreatment and disordered eating behaviours. Data was drawn using an online survey in an Australian community sample. In total, 461 individuals participated (76.80 percent female, M = 43.04 years, SD = 16.23). Participants completed measures for childhood maltreatment (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire – Short Form), disordered eating behaviour (Three Factor Eating Questionnaire – Revised 21), emotion regulation (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire) and thought suppression (Thought Suppression Inventory – Revised). Bootstrapping tests revealed significant mediation pathways between all forms of childhood maltreatment (physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and physical and emotional neglect), and eating behaviours (cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating), through the emotion regulation strategies of cognitive reappraisal, intrusive thoughts and successful thought suppression. Further longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the direction of causality in these findings of emotion regulation strategies mediating the relationships between childhood maltreatment and disordered eating behaviours.