The Quality of Mother–Child Feeding Interactions Predicts Psychopathological Symptoms in Offspring and Mothers Seven Years Later: A Longitudinal Study on the General Population

Abstract

The increased risk of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children has been observed in the presence of maternal psychopathology. This study aimed to investigate a potential pathway involving the quality of early interactions between mothers and their children. A sample of 150 mother–child dyads underwent assessment when the children were 3 years old and around the age of 10. Video recordings of feeding exchanges between mothers and children were analyzed to evaluate the quality of mother–child interactions. Maternal psychopathology and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms were measured through self-report and report-form measures completed by mothers. The quality of mother–child feeding interactions at three years of age significantly differentiated (p < 0.001), eight years later, between mothers at high and low psychopathological risk and between children exhibiting clinical and subclinical internalizing symptoms. Clinically relevant child symptoms were notably more prevalent when the mother–child interaction quality at three years of age was maladaptive, particularly in the context of concurrent high maternal psychopathological risk. The study findings underscore the importance of focusing on the early quality of mother–child feeding interactions to identify potential situations of maternal and child clinical risk for the development of psychopathological symptoms and to guide preemptive measures and policies.