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No evidence for effects of negative emotions on eating behaviour in overweight children

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Abstract

Negative emotions have been hypothesised to trigger a short-term eating pattern in the obese that leads to a high calorie intake. The present study induced emotions of different quality (negative, neutral, positive) and compared laboratory eating behaviour in overweight and normal weight children. No significant emotion related differences in cumulative food intake curves during a laboratory meal were found. Results point to an adequate regulation of hunger and satiety in children, which possibly cannot be maintained during adulthood.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Physiological Psychology, University of Trier, Universitätsring 15, 54286, Trier, Germany

    Reinhold G. Laessle & Simone Schulz

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  1. Reinhold G. Laessle
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  2. Simone Schulz
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Correspondence to Reinhold G. Laessle.

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Laessle, R.G., Schulz, S. No evidence for effects of negative emotions on eating behaviour in overweight children. Eat Weight Disord 18, 91–93 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-013-0012-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-013-0012-4

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