Análise do perfil de desempenho do controle inibitório da díade mãe-filho e o excesso de peso infantil

Abstract

Scientific literature suggests that executive functions, inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility influence eating behavior and, as a result, are associated with obesity. This occurs due to the association of these functions with self-regulation and decision-making processes, which manage energy balance and food intake, therefore, obesity can arise and persist as a result of inefficient EF functioning. However, there is still no consensus in scientific evidence on how the association between cognitive development and obesity occurs, especially when it comes to the association between mother and child. Therefore, this research focuses on analyzing the mother-child relationship to understand the cross-sectional correlational variables between obesity and higher cognitive functions. To this end, this research raised the following question: are the mother's EF and BMI related to the child's EF and BMI simultaneously? The general objective is to analyze performance in executive function (inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and working memory) in mother-child dyads with obesity and without obesity. The observations took place in municipal schools in the city of João Pessoa-PB, where 56 children aged 7 to 11 years old and their respective mothers were evaluated. The instruments used to assess attention, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility were, respectively, the Psychological Battery for Assessing Attention and the Five-Digit Test. Working memory was assessed with the Digit Memory Subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III for mothers and the Executive Function Assessment Battery for children. In this study, it was observed that children with adequate weight had a higher and significant average performance (p<0.05) in the three components of EF. There are results of a negative correlation between the mothers' BMI and the three variables of child EF measured, thus, the lower the mother's BMI, the better the child's EF, with significant data only for child working memory (p< 0.05). A negative correlation was noticed between the child's BMI and the mother's EF in working memory and cognitive flexibility, without significant data. The mother-child dyad correlation between the EF of these two groups showed a significant result (p<0.05) also only for working memory. In the general group made up of all children, there was a negative correlation between BMI and EF among children, with significance (p<0.05) only in inhibitory control. Also, mothers' BMI is positively correlated with their children's BMI, thus, children's BMI tends to be higher when mothers' BMI is also higher (p<0.05). The findings of this research suggest: the tendency for children with obesity to perform worse in EF; trend between better maternal BMI and better child EF; trend between better childhood BMI and better maternal working memory and cognitive flexibility; association between child and maternal working memory in the context of obesity; correlation between BMI and child inhibitory control, with a tendency for better IC in children with better BMI; and correlation between maternal BMI and child BMI.