Family patterns in obesity: With consideration of emotional eating and restraint.

Are family patterns important in obesity ? The answer is a qualified yes. Families in which an overweight mother was in treatment were found to be more disengaged and rigid, have less regard between the spouses, and have a mother who was less assertive and more passive-aggressive with anger, and who reacted more strongly to emotions. However, the absence of this pattern in some families with overweight mothers of greater weight stability and lower levels of emotional eating indicated the importance of identifying obese subgroups. In addition, emotional eating was able to differentiate between normal-weight subgroups, thus challenging the practice of defining groups solely on the basis of weight status. Data on cognitive and emotional components of restrained eating also challenge the central role given to cognitive control in some models of eating and suggest that emotional eating is more important. For example, high levels of cognitive control were found even in people with no history of weight lability or emotional eating, and cognitive control was not related to weight status whereas emotional eating was.