Preventing Feeding and Eating Disorders in Children of Parents With Eating Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial

A parental history of an eating disorder is linked with greater risk of eating and socio-emotional problems in the offspring, and more stressful parent-child interactions. Further, parenting concerns often exacerbate existing eating disorder symptoms in parents. Parent-Based Prevention (PBP-B) is a focused intervention aimed to support parents with eating disorders and their partners in developing healthy eating and lifestyle behaviors in their children. The program also focuses on reducing mealtime conflict and improving couple communication. This study tests the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes of the Parent-Based Prevention (PBP) program for these parents and their partners. Parents with any lifetime eating disorder diagnosis who have at least one child 1-5 years old will be randomized to receive PBP immediately or following a 16-week waitlist period. This study will investigate whether PBP is feasible, acceptable, and associated with improvement in short-term outcomes that predict long term risks of eating and weight disorders (e.g., parental cognition associated with feeding practices and child eating behaviors and socio-emotional symptoms). The study will collect important case series data that will inform the design of larger, adequately powered studies to test ways to reduce the likelihood of eating and weight difficulties in the offspring of parents with eating disorders.