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Association of food and general parenting practices with young children’s dietary behaviors and the role of child difficulty in self-regulation
Using the data on 3,250 boys and 3,150 girls from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Nguyen et al. (2019) evaluated the association between parenting practices (food and general) at age 4 with the children’s dietary behaviors, and determined the impact of child difficulty in self-regulation on this relationship. This study extracted the parent-child dyads with complete data on outcomes at age 5, including consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, sweet foods and desserts, salty snack foods, fruits, and vegetables. The food parenting looked at were rules about foods and meal routines (eating at regular time, as a family), while general parenting variables were: difficulty abiding by the rules, harsh discipline, rules about watching television, rules on bedtime, and the parent-child interaction. Regression analyses were performed separately for boys and girls. The results demonstrated a link between better food parenting at age 4 with increased frequency in the consumption of healthy foods and less frequent intake of unhealthy foods in both boys and girls at age 5. In cases of poor self-regulation, the relationship between parenting practices and child’s dietary behaviors was altered for both genders. In boys, having evening meals at a regular time and eating sweet foods and desserts were affected in particular, while difficulty in self-regulation had an impact on associations involving the parent-child interaction, rules regarding foods, harsh discipline, problems sticking with rules, and the consumption of sweet foods and desserts, sugar-sweetened beverages, fruits and vegetables, and fruits alone. This study identified correlations between better food and general parenting practices at age 4 with children’s healthy dietary behaviors at age 5, that varied by gender and child difficulty in self-regulation. Indications are interventions should promote positive parenting on food and general matters, and assist children with difficulty in self-regulation.[NPID: parents, children, family, family relationships, parenting, self-regulation, sugar-sweetened beverages, desserts, snacks, salty snacks, fruits, vegetables, screen time, social media, self-regulation, meal times, meal timing]
Year: 2019
