Fitness, Sleep-Disordered Breathing, Symptoms of Depression, and Cognition in Inactive Overweight Children: Mediation Models.

OBJECTIVES: We used mediation models to examine the mechanisms underlying the relationships among physical fitness, sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), symptoms of depression, and cognitive functioning. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional secondary analysis of the cohorts involved in the 2003-2006 project PLAY (a trial of the effects of aerobic exercise on health and cognition) and the 2008-2011 SMART study (a trial of the effects of exercise on cognition). A total of 397 inactive overweight children aged 7-11 received a fitness test, standardized cognitive test (Cognitive Assessment System, yielding Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive, and Full Scale scores), and depression questionnaire. Parents completed a Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire. We used bootstrapped mediation analyses to test whether SDB mediated the relationship between fitness and depression and whether SDB and depression mediated the relationship between fitness and cognition. RESULTS: Fitness was negatively associated with depression ( B = -0.041; 95% CI, -0.06 to -0.02) and SDB ( B = -0.005; 95% CI, -0.01 to -0.001). SDB was positively associated with depression ( B = 0.99; 95% CI, 0.32 to 1.67) after controlling for fitness. The relationship between fitness and depression was mediated by SDB (indirect effect = -0.005; 95% CI, -0.01 to -0.0004). The relationship between fitness and the attention component of cognition was independently mediated by SDB (indirect effect = 0.058; 95% CI, 0.004 to 0.13) and depression (indirect effect = -0.071; 95% CI, -0.01 to -0.17). CONCLUSIONS: SDB mediates the relationship between fitness and depression, and SDB and depression separately mediate the relationship between fitness and the attention component of cognition.

Relative reinforcing value of food and delayed reward discounting in obesity and disordered eating: A systematic review.

Understanding the food choice decision-making may help identify those at higher risk for excess weight gain and dysregulated eating patterns. This paper systematically reviews the literature related to eating behavior and behavioral economic constructs of relative reinforcing value of food (RRVfood) and delayed reward discounting (DRD). RRVfood characterizes how valuable energy-dense food is to the individual, and DRD characterizes preferences for smaller immediate rewards over larger future rewards, an index of impulsivity. Literature search on PubMed was conducted using combination of terms that involve behavioral economics and dysregulated eating in youth and adults. Forty-seven articles were reviewed. There is consistent evidence that obese youth and adults exhibit higher RRVfood. There is a need for more research on the role of RRVfood in eating disorders, as an insufficient number of studies exist to draw meaningful conclusions. There is accumulating evidence that obese individuals have higher DRD but the study of moderators of this relationship is crucial. Only a small number of studies have been conducted on DRD and binge eating, and no clear conclusions can be made currently. Approximately half of existing studies suggest lower DRD in individuals with anorexia nervosa. Research implications and treatment application are discussed.

Associations of adolescent emotional and loss of control eating with 1-year changes in disordered eating, weight, and adiposity.

OBJECTIVE: Adolescent emotional-eating, referring to eating in response to negative affective states, is frequently reported by those with loss of control (LOC) eating. Although LOC eating has been shown to predict exacerbated disordered eating and excess weight/adiposity gain, the extent to which emotional-eating, either alone or in combination with LOC, predicts adverse outcomes has not been determined. Thus, we examined associations of baseline emotional-eating with changes in disordered eating, BMI, and adiposity over 1-year, and to what degree the presence or absence of baseline LOC moderated these associations. METHODS: 189 non-treatment-seeking youth (15.4 ± 1.4y; 66% female; 67% non-Hispanic White, 38% overweight [BMI ≥ 85th %ile]) completed the emotional-eating Scale for Children/Adolescents and the Eating Disorder Examination interview at baseline and again at 1-year. Air displacement plethysmography assessed adiposity at both time points. RESULTS: Baseline emotional-eating alone was not significantly associated with the development of objective binge eating or changes in disordered eating attitudes, BMI or adiposity 1-year later. However, baseline emotional-eating interacted with the presence of baseline LOC in the prediction of 1-year outcomes. Among adolescents with LOC eating, greater baseline emotional-eating was related to increased disordered eating attitudes (p = .03), BMI (p = .04), and adiposity (p = .04) at 1-year, after correcting for false discovery rate. DISCUSSION: Emotional-eating among youth also reporting LOC was associated with adverse outcomes over 1-year. Adolescents who report both behaviors may represent a subset of individuals at especially high risk for exacerbated disordered eating and excess weight gain. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.(Int J Eat Disord 2017; 50:551-560).

Thinness expectancies and restraint in Black and White college women: a prospective study.

Despite stereotypes to the contrary, women of diverse racial backgrounds, including Black women, experience disordered eating symptoms. While there has been an increase in research comparing disordered eating symptoms across ethnic groups, there remains a dearth of research on the mechanisms of action underlying the development of these symptoms in non-White populations. Thinness expectancies prospectively predict disordered eating symptoms in adolescent girls, but the majority of research on expectancies has been conducted with White samples. Restraint, or self-initiated attempts to restrict food intake, may be precipitated by cognitive factors such as thinness expectancies. In the current study, we followed a sample of Black and White women over one semester of college to assess the influence of thinness expectancies and ethnic identity on restraint. Our sample consisted of 193 college women (93 Black women). We found that White women experienced restraint at higher levels than Black women, but both Black and White women experienced an increase in restraint across the first semester in college. The endorsement of thinness expectancies added significant incremental variance to the prediction of restraint over time, when baseline restraint was included in the model. These effects were not moderated by ethnicity nor ethnic identity. This study adds to the scarce literature on phenomenology of disordered eating in Black women.