Increased risk of anorexia nervosa in children with poor improvement of emotional regulation skills: JAMA

The children's mothers mentioned their children's emotional quotient at 3, 5, and 7 years of age using the Children's Social Behaviour Questionnaire. Further, multilevel models were used to get early childhood emotion regulation scores.

The findings of the study are as follows:

· Out of the complete cohort, 62.4 % (n= 97) participants showed symptoms in line with a diagnosis of broad anorexia nervosa at 14 years of age.

· There was no evidence to prove that children with lower emotion regulation skills at 3 years of age had greater risks of reporting symptoms of broad anorexia nervosa in their adolescence (odds ratio [OR], 1.21; 95% CI, 0.91-1.63).

· However, children whose emotion regulation skills remained poor over their childhood period and who had more difficulties balancing their emotions at 7 years of age had increased the risk of having broad anorexia nervosa at 14 years of age (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.16-1.83).

The researchers concluded that problems in developing age-appropriate emotion regulation abilities in childhood are linked with developing broad anorexia nervosa in their adolescence. Hence, interventions to bolster the development of emotion regulation skills throughout their childhood may help arrest the incidence of anorexia nervosa.

Reference:

Association of Emotion Regulation Trajectories in Childhood with Anorexia Nervosa and Atypical Anorexia Nervosa in Early Adolescence by Henderson M et. al published in the JAMA Psychiatry journal.

DOI:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.1599