Childhood adversity and disordered eating: the mediator role of food reward drive.

INTRODUCTION: Disordered eating is a subclinical constellation of symptoms-including uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, and cognitive restraint-that constitutes an important risk factor for eating disorders. We examined the associations between childhood maltreatment and disordered eating symptoms and whether food reward drive is a mediator in this relationship. Domain-general anticipatory pleasure was examined as an alternative mediator. METHODS: Romanian adults (N = 377; 85.4% women; mean age = 27.19 years) completed a retrospective assessment of childhood maltreatment at baseline, and 1 month later, they were assessed for food reward drive, domain-general anticipatory pleasure, and disordered eating symptoms. RESULTS: Emotional abuse and emotional neglect uniquely predicted higher food reward drive. This, in turn, predicted uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, and cognitive restraint, yielding significant indirect effects for both types of maltreatment. After covariate adjustment, only the indirect pathway from emotional neglect to disordered eating via food reward drive remained significant. The results were replicated in a sensitivity analysis excluding participants with potentially biased (minimized) maltreatment reports, in which emotional neglect was the only domain showing a significant indirect effect. Symptom-specific models indicated the strongest pathways for uncontrolled and emotional eating, with weaker effects for cognitive restraint. Domain-general anticipatory pleasure showed an additional, smaller indirect effect in the opposite direction for emotional neglect. DISCUSSION: These findings highlight food-specific reward drive as a mechanism linking childhood emotional neglect to disordered eating in adults.