Relationship between overeating and child abuse by family members among Chinese adolescents

The negative effect of mother-daughter relationship on female’s eating behaviors has been widely reported; however, few studies examined how other family members-child relationships might be related to children’s eating behaviors, especially for male children. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether child abuse by family members (parents and others) was related to overeating (four levels of eating disorder symptoms) among Chinese adolescents. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a school-based sample of 4346 middle school students in China, and the participants completed self-report measures for child abuse, overeating, and demographic variables. Bivariate correlation analyses and ordinal logistic regression analyses (adjusting for potential confounding variables) were performed to estimate the association between childhood abuse by different family members and overeating. Boys and girls who reported higher levels of child abuse perpetrated by their father, mother, and other family members showed higher levels of overeating. These three sources (father, mother, other members) of family member abuse were differentially associated with overeating between boys and girls. After adjusting for potential confounding variables, boys who experienced child abuse by fathers (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.14–1.98) and by other family members (OR = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.00–2.71) were more likely to have overeating. However, for girls, experiences of child abuse by fathers (OR = 1.74, 95% CI: 1.31–2.31) and by mothers (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.03–1.83) were significant predictors for overeating. The results not only replicated previous findings that child abuse could contribute to overeating, but also extended previous findings by showing that the sources of family abuse could influence overeating differently for boys and girls.