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Predictors of paternal and maternal controlling feeding practices with 2- to 5-year-old children

Emma Haycraft1, Jackie Blissett

  • 1Loughborough University Centre for Research into Eating Disorders, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. E.Haycraft@lboro.ac.uk

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
|March 5, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Child eating behaviors and temperament, not psychopathology, predict parental controlling feeding practices. Children's emotional eating is a key factor for mothers, suggesting further research into its causal role.

Area of Science:

  • Child Psychology
  • Parenting Studies
  • Behavioral Science

Background:

  • Controlling feeding practices are common but their predictors are not fully understood.
  • Understanding parental feeding behaviors is crucial for child development and health.
  • Research has primarily focused on maternal feeding, with less attention to paternal influences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify predictors of controlling feeding practices in both mothers and fathers of young children.
  • To examine the influence of child eating behaviors, temperament, and parental mental health on feeding styles.
  • To differentiate predictors of maternal versus paternal controlling feeding.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional questionnaire design involving 96 UK parents (48 mother-father pairs).
  • Participants were parents of children aged 2–5 years recruited from nursery schools.
  • Assessed parents' feeding practices, eating psychopathology, mental health, and children's eating behaviors and temperament.

Main Results:

  • Maternal controlling feeding was predicted by children's emotional over/undereating, sociability, and maternal mental health symptoms.
  • Paternal controlling feeding was solely predicted by paternal reports of children's slow eating and emotional undereating.
  • Child characteristics, particularly emotional eating, emerged as stronger predictors than parental eating psychopathology.

Conclusions:

  • Parental controlling feeding practices are more closely associated with child characteristics than parental eating psychopathology.
  • Children's emotional eating behavior is a significant predictor of maternal controlling feeding practices and warrants further investigation.
  • Findings highlight the importance of considering child-specific factors in understanding and addressing parental feeding behaviors.
Abstract

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