(PS5-81) Temperament and Psychopathology During Early Childhood Predicts Disordered Eating in Late Adolescence

Eating disorders (EDs) are lethal mental health conditions, and the prevalence and severity of disordered eating in youth is growing. Various aspects of childhood temperament and psychopathology have been found to predict disordered eating symptoms and body dissatisfaction in early to mid-adolescence (Bufferd et al., 2022). As ED symptoms continue to emerge through adolescence (and beyond), we sought to examine the longitudinal relationships between temperament and psychopathology during early childhood and ED symptoms and body dissatisfaction during late adolescence.

The current longitudinal study included a community sample of N = 609 parents and their children (45.5% Female; 20.2% non-White and/or Hispanic). Independent variables assessed when children were ages 3 and 6 included child temperament: negative emotionality (NE) and positive emotionality (PE) (laboratory-observed), and anger/frustration, discomfort, fear, perceptual sensitivity, sadness, and shyness (parent -report questionnaire); and child psychopathology: anxiety disorder, depressive disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder (parent-report diagnostic interview). Dependent variables assessed when youth were age 18 included current ED symptoms, anorexia nervosa (AN), and bulimia nervosa (BN) symptoms (parent- and youth-report diagnostic interview) and body dissatisfaction (youth-report questionnaire). Analyses were preregistered (https://tinyurl.com/ABCT2024Preregistration). Multiple linear regressions were conducted with relevant demographic covariates with significant associations with DVs. Full Information Maximum Likelihood procedures were used to estimate missing data.

Child anxiety disorder at age 3 significantly predicted age 18 ED symptoms while controlling for child sex (B = .550, SE = 223, p = .014). Child depression at age 6 significantly predicted age 18 BN symptoms while controlling for parents’ marital status (B = .075, SE = .021, p < .001). Finally, father-reported child sadness at age 6 significantly predicted age 18 body dissatisfaction even when accounting for child sex, marital status, and father’s level of education (B = .515, SE = .136, p < .001). Child temperament and psychopathology did not predict age 18 AN symptoms.

These findings emphasize the role of anxiety and depression in childhood predicting disordered eating in late adolescence and the role of temperamental sadness in predicting body dissatisfaction in late adolescence, as well as add to the growing data on childhood factors that contribute to disordered eating and related behaviors. Further, these results highlight the value of father-report in investigating the development of disordered eating from childhood to adolescence. Future research should continue to investigate predictors of risk for targeted prevention efforts in childhood to minimize the likelihood of the onset of EDs.