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

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 (