Navigation
Child eating behaviors, parental feeding practices and food shopping motivations during the COVID-19 lockdown in France: (How) did they change?
In this 2021 study, the possible effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on French families’ habits were under inspection. Measures were put in place to monitor children’s eating behaviors, parental feeding practices, and parental motivations when buying food before and during the lockdown. Parents completed online surveys on behalf of their children (all aged between 3-12 years). When parents noticed any modifications in their children, it was usually appetite, enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, and emotional overeating that significantly increased during the lockdown. An increase in child boredom was found to strongly predict greater food responsiveness, emotional overeating, and snacking frequency in between meals. Parents who altered their parenting practices generally became more permissive during lockdown, setting less rules, being more soothing with food, and giving the child more autonomy. Also, the lockdown brought more changes in the parents’ behaviors, buying pleasurable and sustainable foods more frequently, preparing more home-cooked meals, and cooking more regularly with the child. Education level and greater stress showed correlations with alterations in parental practices and motivations. This study enhanced our understanding of the different factors that influence families’ eating, feeding, and cooking behaviors. [NPID: cooking, parenting, COVID, coronavirus, lockdown, France, French, children, overeating, healthy foods, diets, feeding practices]
Year: 2021
