The relationship between maternal alexithymia and cognitive flexibility, children's emotional eating, and childhood obesity.

Objectives: Childhood obesity is one of the major health challenges of the 21st century, a chronic and complicated condition that requires medical intervention. The goal of this study was to investigate the emotional eating levels of children with obesity as well as their mothers' alexithymia and cognitive flexibility, which we hypothesized to contribute to childhood obesity.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional, case-control study of age-, sex-, and ethnicity-matched 100 dyads. All mothers completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI), and the children completed the Emotional Eating Scale-Children (EES-C). In addition, researchers administered a clinical and sociodemographic questionnaire.

Results: The childhood obesity group exhibited significantly higher levels of emotional eating and maternal alexithymia, but also significantly lower levels of maternal cognitive flexibility compared to those in the healthy control group. Further analyses revealed a significant association between childhood obesity, maternal alexithymia, and irregular sleep patterns in children.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that elevated levels of alexithymia in mothers of children diagnosed with obesity may influence childhood obesity. The aims of early interventions in managing pediatric obesity may include evaluations of families and mothers.