Do Parents and Children Tend to Have Similar Eating Habits?

• A U.K. study published in Appetite compared children’s eating patterns to those of their parents
• Parents who really enjoyed their food and were prone to emotional overeating had an increased likelihood of having children with similar eating behaviors and a lower likelihood of having children who were fussy eaters
• Parents who were fussy eaters, quick to become satiated, and who showed comparatively little enjoyment in food had an increased chance of having children with these characteristics.

When children are very young, they generally eat whatever their caregivers (most often parents) give them. What that is depends on what is available in the area where they live, their parents’ culture, and their personal preferences. For example, a recent study reported that newborns in Taiwan are, on average, breastfed for only 2 months (Chen et al., 2024), switching to various rice-based foods afterward. In contrast, the average breastfeeding duration in Greece is around 4 months (Tavoulari et al., 2016), and the first solid foods given to babies are not based on rice. These differences between families and cultures persist in later years of life as well, creating specific food environments that individuals live in.

Food environments

A food environment is created by the physical, economic, and social conditions that shape people’s access to and choices of food. These include factors such as the availability of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, restaurants, food prices, advertising, and cultural norms. A well-developed food environment with affordable fresh produce and diverse options supports healthy eating, while an environment dominated by processed and fast food can lead to poor nutrition (Cooksey-Stowers et al., 2017; Samuthpongtorn et al., 2023).

An environment dominated by processed and fast food can lead to poor nutrition. 

For example, a food desert is an area where people have limited access to fresh and affordable food. These areas can develop due to a lack of grocery stores, but they can also result from logistics difficulties. For example, stores on small remote islands often have canned food only. In contrast, a food swamp is an area where unhealthy food options, such as fast food chains and convenience stores, significantly outnumber healthier alternatives (Cooksey-Stowers et al., 2017). School cafeterias and workplace canteens are also food environments, influencing eating habits through meal options, portion sizes, and nutrition policies.

A food desert is an area where people have limited access to fresh and affordable food.

Understanding food environments is crucial for addressing obesity, food insecurity, and diet-related diseases. For example, a relatively recent study found that food swamps predict obesity rates in the U.S. (Cooksey-Stowers et al., 2017), while living in food deserts was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events in individuals with coronary artery disease (Kelli et al., 2019).

Latent eating profiles

People in general have very diverse menus. They tend to eat different things on different days and at different times. Even dietary intake patterns of people with very similar eating habits almost always show some differences. Their food environments differ as well. Because of this, it is not easy to analyze similarities and differences in eating patterns of different individuals in a way that would allow generalizations.

One way to make such analyses is to group eating patterns of individuals into latent eating profiles (Pickard et al., 2024). Latent eating profiles are broad patterns of eating behaviors within a population used to group individuals based on their dietary habits, preferences, or psychological drivers of food consumption. They are typically identified using statistical methods like latent class analysis.

The current study: Intergenerational transmission of eating behaviors

Study author Abigail Pickard and her colleagues wanted to study the intergenerational transmission of eating behaviors (Pickard et al., 2024). For this purpose, they examined associations between the latent eating profiles of a group of children and their parents.

The study participants were 785 parents and primary caregivers from the U.K. who had provided survey data on their 3-6-year-old child’s eating behavior seven months before this study. This time, the study authors asked them to complete an assessment of their own eating behavior patterns (the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire) and feeding practices they apply to their children (the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire). Study authors paired this with the eating behavior data of participants’ children they already had (see Figure 1).

 

Figure 1. Study procedure (Pickard et al., 2025).

 

Eating profiles of parents and children

Study authors analyzed participants’ responses to these eating behavior assessments to organize them into categories, i.e., latent eating profiles. Analysis of children’s responses resulted in 4 categories (latent eating profiles). These were:

• Avid Eating – 22% of children – children who enjoy food, are slow to become satiated, and are prone to emotional overeating,
• Happy Eating – 18% of children – children who also enjoy food, but are less prone to food fussiness, slow eating, and emotional over- or undereating,
• Typical Eating – 44% of children – approximately average proneness to all studied eating behaviors, and
• Avoidant Eating – 16% of children – these children are highly prone to food fussiness and emotional undereating, they quickly become satiated, eat slowly, and enjoy food less than the other three groups.

Parents’ and caregivers’ eating profiles were similar with some differences – 41% were in the Typical Eating category, 37% were in the Avid eating profile, and 6% were in the Avoidant eating group. The adults did not have the Happy Eating profile; instead, the 4th adult profile was called Emotional Overeating. 16% of adult participants were in this profile, characterized by the highest proneness to overeating of all four groups, and with lower enjoyment of food than the typical and avid eating profiles (see Figure 2).

 

Figure 2. Eating profiles of parents and children.

 

Eating profiles of parents and their children showed similarities

Further analysis revealed that parents in the Avid eating profile and those in the Emotional Overeating profile were more likely to have children in the Avid Eating or Happy Eating Profiles and less likely to have children who were Avoidant eaters. Statistical analysis showed that this association could be partially mediated by proneness to use food to regulate emotions and the shared food environment. In other words, parents who are avid eaters or prone to emotional overeating would use food to regulate emotions. Their children would pick up on this habit and, in turn, also become avid eaters. The situation was similar for Happy Eaters children, but with the food environment, parents and children shared also being a mediator.

Similarly, statistical analysis showed that parents who were in the Avoidant Eating profile had an increased likelihood of having children who were in the Avoidant Eating category as well.

Conclusion

Overall, the study showed that parents who are avid or highly prone to overeating tend to have children who are also avid or happy eaters. It is possible that this link is partly caused by children learning from their parents (who are in these eating categories) to use food for regulating emotions, but also by their shared food environments. Similarly, parents who were avoidant eaters tended to have children who are avoidant eaters.

These findings highlight the importance of home food environments for the transmission of eating behaviors across generations, particularly less favorable ones.

The paper “Associations between parent and child latent eating profiles and the role of parental feeding practices” was authored by Abigail Pickard, Claire Farrow, Emma Haycraft, Moritz Herle, Katie Edwards, Clare Llewellyn, Helen Croker, and Jacqueline Blisset.

 

References

Chen, C., Shih, P., Su, C., Cheng, C., Lee, M., & Lane, H. (2024). Association between infant feeding and ADHD development in childhood: A birth cohort study in Taiwan. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, jcpp.14100. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14100

Cooksey-Stowers, K., Schwartz, M., & Brownell, K. (2017). Food Swamps Predict Obesity Rates Better Than Food Deserts in the United States. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(11), 1366. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111366

Kelli, H. M., Kim, J. H., Samman Tahhan, A., Liu, C., Ko, Y., Hammadah, M., Sullivan, S., Sandesara, P., Alkhoder, A. A., Choudhary, F. K., Gafeer, M. M., Patel, K., Qadir, S., Lewis, T. T., Vaccarino, V., Sperling, L. S., & Quyyumi, A. A. (2019). Living in Food Deserts and Adverse Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients With Cardiovascular Disease. Journal of the American Heart Association, 8(4), e010694. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.118.010694

Pickard, A., Farrow, C., Haycraft, E., Herle, M., Edwards, K., Llewellyn, C., Croker, H., & Blissett, J. (2024). Associations between parent and child latent eating profiles and the role of parental feeding practices. Appetite, 201, 107589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2024.107589

Samuthpongtorn, C., Nguyen, L. H., Okereke, O. I., Wang, D. D., Song, M., Chan, A. T., & Mehta, R. S. (2023). Consumption of Ultraprocessed Food and Risk of Depression. JAMA Network Open, 6(9), e2334770. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.34770

Tavoulari, E.-F., Benetou, V., Vlastarakos, P. V., Psaltopoulou, T., Chrousos, G., Kreatsas, G., Gryparis, A., & Linos, A. (2016). Factors affecting breastfeeding duration in Greece: What is important? World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics, 5(3), 349–357. https://doi.org/10.5409/wjcp.v5.i3.349