From mother to daughter: cognitive flexibility and response inhibition as potential intergenerational trait markers for eating disorders

Background Executive functions (EFs), particularly cognitive flexibility, are affected in eating disorders (EDs), and similar impairments have been shown in familial high-risk (FHR) children. However, the field lacks intergenerational assessments of EF allowing evaluation and comparison of these parent-child patterns of impairment in EDs. This preliminary study used comparable EF tasks in mothers with a history of EDs and FHR daughters to estimate mother-daughter associations, explore associations with maternal illness characteristics, and identify candidate EF domains for future research. Method Thirty-five mothers with a lifetime history of anorexia nervosa ( n = 11), bulimia nervosa ( n = 12), or binge eating disorder ( n = 12) and their FHR daughters (median age = 10, range = 7) completed three EF tasks. Exploratory correlation and regression analyses examined mother-daughter EF associations, and associations between maternal illness characteristics and daughters’ EF scores. Results Mother-daughter correlations were observed in cognitive flexibility ( r s =0.39) and response inhibition ( r s =0.41) tasks but did not survive multiple-comparison correction. Unadjusted analyses found that maternal cognitive flexibility significantly predicted daughter’s cognitive flexibility ( β = 0.36, p =.036, 95% CI [0.06, 1.57]). Maternal response inhibition significantly predicted daughter’s response inhibition ( β = 0.46, p =.002, 95% CI [0.28, 1.17]), and maternal ED recovery status predicted daughter response inhibition ( B = -8.02, p =.01, 95% CI [-13.97, -2.07]). Conclusions Our exploratory findings show patterns of mother-daughter EF congruence, as well as associations between maternal ED recovery status and daughter EF. These findings serve to generate hypotheses and guide larger longitudinal studies evaluating EF as a potential intergenerational trait marker associated with ED risk, highlighting cognitive flexibility and response inhibition as candidates for future research.