Peer-reviewed article
Racial marginalization moderates associations between mothers' emotion regulation difficulties and feeding to soothe practices with young children.
Sara F Stein, Alison L Miller, Maria M Galano, Amy K Nuttall, Joseph S Lonstein et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how mothers' emotion regulation difficulties relate to using food to soothe young children, and whether this relationship differs by racial group. Among 181 mothers in Michigan, racially marginalized mothers used feeding to soothe more often overall, but their use of this practice did not vary with emotion regulation difficulties. In contrast, non-marginalized mothers increased feeding to soothe when they had greater emotion regulation difficulties. The findings suggest that cultural and structural contexts shape feeding practices differently across racial groups.
Key points
- Racially marginalized women reported greater use of feeding to soothe than racially non-marginalized women
- Emotion regulation difficulties predicted greater feeding to soothe, but only among racially non-marginalized women
- Maternal childhood maltreatment history was not associated with feeding to soothe practices
- The relationship between emotion regulation and feeding to soothe differed significantly by racial marginalization group
- Culturally responsive interventions should account for social, structural, and cultural context rather than treating all mothers as homogeneous
Limitations
The study is observational and cross-sectional, measured at a single timepoint when children were 2.5 years old, so causation cannot be established. The sample is from one geographic region (Michigan) and the findings may not generalize to other populations or contexts.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Early feeding practices such as feeding to soothe distress can shape children's self-regulation and eating behaviors. Maternal childhood maltreatment history and emotion regulation difficulties may contribute to greater reliance on feeding to soothe, though further evidence is needed. Furthermore, cultural differences in feeding may influence the association between emotion regulation and feeding to soothe. This study examined whether maternal trauma and emotion regulation difficulties predicted feeding to soothe and differences by racial marginalization group. METHODS: Women (N = 181) were drawn from the Michigan Prenatal Stress Study. When children were 2.5 years, mothers reported on their history of childhood maltreatment, current feeding practices, emotion regulation difficulties, and demographics. RESULTS: Racially marginalized women reported greater use of feeding to soothe than racially non-marginalized women. Emotion regulation difficulties and racial marginalization group predicted greater feeding to soothe use, whereas maltreatment was unrelated. Results of the interaction between emotion regulation difficulties and racial marginalization group revealed that among racially marginalized women, feeding to soothe did not significantly change based on emotion regulation difficulties. In contrast, racially non-marginalized women's use of feeding to soothe increased with increasing emotion regulation difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight that the mechanisms driving feeding to soothe may not be uniform across racial marginalization groups and underscore the importance of considering social, structural, and cultural context when examining child feeding practices. Culturally responsive interventions should account for these contextual factors rather than treating all mothers as a homogeneous group, and support emotion regulation particularly among racially non-marginalized women.