Observing Snack Time at a Psychoanalytic Parent-Toddler Group: Affect Regulation and Therapeutic Possibilities

Abstract

Nutritional, psychological, and psychoanalytic studies of toddler eating have focussed on food intake and the possible links to childhood and adolescent eating disorders, generally based on mothers' self-reports. The present study was based on video recordings of snack time at a psychoanalytic toddler group. The qualitative methodology employed involved line-by-line thematic extraction based on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Extracts of observations are presented with accompanying explanatory text. These extracts are discussed in relation to affect regulation and psychopathology. In addition, the ways in which group leaders intervene therapeutically at snack time are described, and a broader analysis of the affective stages of eating is put forward.

Notes

*Other aspects of this study are described in Holmes, Prützel-Thomas, and Asquith (2010).