Exploring the Association Between Childhood Emotional Maltreatment and Eating Disorder Symptoms During Pregnancy: A Moderated Mediation Model with Prenatal Emotional Distress and Social Support

The results showed that prenatal emotional distress totally mediated the association between childhood emotional maltreatment and eating disorder symptoms in pregnant women (<i>β</i> = 0.20; SE = 0.06; 95% CI: 0.08, 0.33; <i>p</i> < 0.001). Moreover, moderation analysis showed that prenatal social support only moderated the direct link between childhood emotional maltreatment and disordered eating, so higher levels of childhood emotional maltreatment were predictive of higher levels of eating disorder symptoms only among pregnant women with low levels of prenatal social support (<i>b</i> = 0.17; SE = 0.06; <i>t</i> = 2.73; 95% CI: 0.05, 0.30; <i>p</i> < 0.01). The limitations and clinical implications are discussed.