Social cognitive maternal-mediated nutritional correlates of childhood obesity

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the extent to which the maternal-facilitated, social cognitive theory constructs of environment, emotional coping, expectations, self-control, and self-efficacy predicted child fruit and vegetable consumption and sugar-free beverage intake. Instrumentation comprised three stages of data collection and analysis. Stage 1 included item generation, face and content validity by a panel of six experts, and readability by Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level tests. Stage 2 assessed stability of the theoretical constructs using the test-retest procedure with 30 participants. Structural equation modeling was used during Stage 3 to conduct confirmatory factor analysis and to establish predictive validity of the models. A total of 224 respondents participated in this study. Maternal-facilitated home environment and self-efficacy were significant predictors of child fruit and vegetable consumption while maternal-mediated home environment and emotional coping were significant predictors of child sugar-free beverage intake.