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Updated: Jul 10, 2025

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors
Published on: January 25, 2018
Association of Maternal Feeding Style with Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Saudi Preschoolers: A Nationwide
Amal Abdulaziz Al-Buobayd1, Hala Hazam Al-Otaibi1, Hoda A S Farag1
1Department of Food and Nutrition Science, College of Agricultural and Food Science, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia.
Abstract:
Parental feeding style (PFS) remarkably influences fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption in preschoolers. This study aimed to determine the association between PFS and preschoolers' F&V consumption, as influenced by socioeconomic factors. A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted among 1418 mothers of children aged 3-5 years in Saudi Arabia. Multinomial logistic regression model analysis was performed to assess the association between PFS and children's daily F&V intake using the Parental Feeding Style Questionnaire. The influence of socioeconomic factors on this association was also evaluated. For mothers with university degrees, encouragement, emotional, and instrumental feeding enhanced their children's intake of F&Vs, fruits, and vegetables, respectively. Children from families earning SAR >10,000 monthly had increased F&V intake with encouragement feeding and increased fruit intake with emotional feeding. However, F&V intake was reduced in children of working mothers with controlling feeding styles. Breastfeeding for <6 months was associated with increased F&V intake through emotional feeding. The most prevalent feeding style was encouragement, followed by emotional, with control and instrumental styles being less common. This study provides strong evidence on the association between PFS and daily F&V intake in Saudi preschoolers. Interventional and longitudinal studies on PFS are required to confirm these findings.
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