Maternal overweight during the (Pre)pregnancy period and the development of disordered eating behaviors in adolescent offspring: Investigating the role of amygdala volume and BMI in childhood

Research suggests that maternal overweight during pregnancy increases the risk of obesity and mental health issues in offspring, potentially by affecting fetal (brain) development. This study investigated the relationship between maternal BMI in the (pre-)pregnancy period and offspring's disordered eating in adolescence. We hypothesized maternal BMI to be positively associated with disordered eating behavior in offspring, partially mediated by childhood BMI and amygdala volume. Data was leveraged from Generation R, a prospective birth cohort in Rotterdam, the Netherlands (N = 3112). Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was self-reported or measured at study enrollment. Offspring disordered eating behaviors-including emotional eating, uncontrolled eating, restrained eating, overeating, loss of control (LOC) eating, and binge eating-were self-reported at age 14. Offspring BMI and amygdala volume were assessed at age 10 via physical measurements and MRI. The results showed that (pre-)pregnancy BMI was positively associated with emotional and restrained eating behaviors, as well as a higher risk of LOC eating in offspring at age 14. No associations were found with uncontrolled eating, overeating or binge eating. (Pre-)pregnancy BMI did not significantly influence offspring amygdala volume at age 10, hence mediation analyses of amygdala volume were not performed. Offspring BMI mediated the associations between (pre-) pregnancy BMI and offspring disordered eating, and explained between 31 - 77% of the associations with emotional eating, restrained eating and LOC eating (the latter not significant after multiple testing correction). Our findings underscore the link between maternal BMI during pregnancy and eating behaviors in offspring.