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Food parenting practices and their association with child nutrition risk status: comparing mothers and fathers
In this 2017 study, thirty-one 2-parent families in Canada were cross-sectionally analyzed and the association between food parenting practices and preschool-age children’s nutrition risk were evaluated. Parents completed an adapted version of the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire, while the kids’ nutrition risk was calculated using the NutriSTEP score. To account for sibling association, generalized estimating questions were used and the model was adjusted for child age, sex, household income, and parental body mass index. Families in which the children help prepare meals with the mother/father were related with less nutrition risk for the child, as well as their healthy home environment score. The children’s nutrition risk was also lower if the mother encourages balance and variety, although in cases where food is used as a reward by the mother the nutrition risk was higher. Fathers also play an influential role in their child’s diet, as modelling of healthy behaviours by the father was linked with lower nutrition risk, while his restriction for health and pressure-to-eat scores correlated with increased nutrition risk. Watterworth et al. (2017) couldn’t find any associations between child nutrition status and parental emotion regulation, control, monitoring, or restriction for weight, but drew the conclusion that both mothers’ and fathers’ food parenting practices affect their children’s nutrition status.
[NPID: parents, children, family, family relationships, parenting, feeding, feeding practices, household income, diet balance, diet variety, emotional regulation, weight restriction]
Year: 2017
