Emotional eating (EE), the propensity to eat in response to emotions, is thought to have its origins in the early parent-infant relationship. This study tested if poor parenting quality and parent-infant attachment insecurity in early life result in EE in adolescence through the increased use of the emotion regulation strategy suppression and subsequent alexithymia. At the age of 15 months, parent-infant attachment security (n = 129) was observed with two abbreviated attachment measures: the Shortened Strange Situation Procedure (SSSP), and the Shortened Attachment Q-set (S-AQS). At the age of 15 and 28 months, parenting quality was observed during semi-structured play. At the age of 12 years, children completed self-report questionnaires to assess the suppression of emotions, alexithymia, and EE. At the age of 16 years, EE was measured again. The mediation models indicated that lower parenting quality and parent-infant attachment security both predicted increased use of suppression of emotions, which was related to increased alexithymia, and in turn more EE. When the independent contributions of parenting quality and attachment security were investigated, the models with the SSSP as predictor remained significant, but the models with the S-AQS became insignificant. These results indicate that, to a certain extent, parental quality and parent-infant attachment security are independent predictors of adolescent EE.

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