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Practices and preferences: Exploring the relationships between food-related parenting practices and child food preferences for high fat and/or sugar foods, fruits, and vegetables
This 2017 study inspected the relationship between parents’ food-related practices and the child’s food preferences. Through the use of the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ) and the Preschool Adapted Food Liking Scale (PALS), Vollmer & Baietto determined the association between each food-related parenting practice with various food categories on PALS including fruits, vegetables, and high fat/sugar foods. It was discovered that when a parent allows the child control over what they eat, there is a negative impact on the child’s preference for fruit, while when the parent promotes child involvement in meal preparation the child was more likely to show increased preference for vegetables. Liking for high fat and sugar foods also increased if parents restricted unhealthy foods, used food as a method of regulating child emotion and as a reward. Less liking for these high -fat and -sugar foods was related with increased availability of healthy foods in the house, more parental explanation on why healthy foods should be eaten, and modeled healthy eating by the parent in front of the child. Although this study does not provide concrete evidence that parents influence the child or vice versa, coercive feeding practices can have a poor effect on the child’s food preference. [NPID: parents, children, family, family relationships, parenting, parenting styles, fruits, vegetables, sugar, meal prep, food restriction]
Year: 2017
