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Earlier and Concurrent Food Insecurity Are Associated with Suboptimal Parenting in Early Childhood
Hoa T Nguyen1, Edward A Frongillo2, Christine E Blake2
1Institute for Families in Society, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
Insights
Food insecurity (FI) negatively impacts parenting practices, especially for girls by age 5. This includes harsher discipline and less structured meal routines, highlighting the need for supportive interventions.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Parenting Studies
- Public Health Nutrition
Background:
- Food insecurity (FI) is linked to adverse child outcomes, including poor health and developmental challenges.
- Parenting practices play a crucial role in child development, and may be influenced by household food security status.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between food insecurity (FI) and parenting practices in early childhood.
- To examine how changes in FI over time affect parenting behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (parental interviews and child assessments at 9 months, 2, 4, and 5 years).
- Analysis of parenting practices (parent-child interaction, discipline, rules, routines) regressed on earlier and concurrent FI, controlling for covariates.
- Stratified analyses by child gender and use of full-information-maximum-likelihood estimation.
Main Results:
- Earlier FI was associated with harsh discipline (girls, age 5) and regular mealtime routines (girls and boys, ages 2 and 4).
- Concurrent FI was linked to harsh discipline (girls, ages 2 and 4; boys, age 2), food rules (girls, age 4), family meals (girls, ages 2 and 4), and regular mealtime routines (girls and boys).
- Earlier FI maintained associations with harsh discipline and regular mealtime routines for girls.
Conclusions:
- Food insecurity is associated with suboptimal parenting practices in establishing a structured home environment, particularly concerning discipline and meal routines.
- These effects are more pronounced for girls and by age 5, underscoring the vulnerability of this demographic.
- Findings highlight the impact of FI on parenting and the need for targeted support systems.
Background:
Food insecurity (FI) is associated with poor health, suboptimal nutrition, and disadvantaged linguistic, social, and academic development for children. Given the prominent role that parents play in children's development, FI may be associated with parenting practices.
Objectives:
We aimed to understand how FI and its change over time relate to parenting in early childhood.
Methods:
Data were from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort: parental interviews and child assessments at 9 mo and 2, 4, and 5 y old. Dependent variables were parenting practices in years 2, 4, and 5 in parent-child interaction, discipline, rules, and routines in general and food-related settings. Stratified by gender, parenting outcomes were regressed on earlier FI and child, parent, and contextual covariates, then additionally regressed on concurrent FI, using models with full-information-maximum-likelihood and cluster control.
Results:
Earlier FI was associated with harsh discipline (girls, year 5: β1 = 0.0811, P < 0.05) and frequent evening meals at a regular time (girls and boys, years 2 and 4), before adding concurrent FI. Accounting for earlier FI and covariates, concurrent FI was associated with harsh discipline (girls, years 2 and 4: β2 = 0.0489 and 0.0705, P < 0.05; boys, year 2: β2 = 0.0584, P < 0.05), rules about foods (girls, year 4), frequent evening meals as a family (girls, years 2 and 4), and frequent evening meals at a regular time (girls, years 2 and 4; boys, year 2); earlier FI remained associated with harsh discipline (girls, year 5) and frequent evening meals at a regular time (girls, years 2 and 4; boys, year 4).
Conclusions:
FI was linked with suboptimal parenting practices in structuring a general and food-related living environment, particularly for girls and by the age of 5 y.
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