Appetitive Traits and Weight in Children: Evidence for Parents’ Controlling Feeding Practices as Mediating Mechanisms

Abstract

Children's food approach and food avoidance are appetitive traits with genetic or biological bases. Nonetheless, parents play a critical role in children's dietary intake through parenting and feeding practices. The present study tested parents' controlling feeding practices (i.e., restriction and pressure to eat) as mediating mechanisms between child appetitive traits and child BMI in an economically and ethnically diverse sample. Participants were 139 children aged 4 to 6 years (51.8% males, M = 4.77 years, SD = 0.84) and their parents. Results showed that restriction and pressure to eat mediated the relation between child food approach or food avoidance and child BMI. Mediation effects did not differ across poverty status or ethnic groups. Also, the type of controlling feeding that parents exert related to children's weight status in diametrically different or opposite ways. Thus, food-related parenting appears to be a promising point of entry for childhood obesity prevention programs. Findings are consistent with a biopsychosocial model of the development of eating and weight in childhood which takes into account both parent and child behavior and characteristics and links child biology and behavior with psychosocial processes and environment.

Associations between Children’s Genetic Susceptibility to Obesity, Infant’s Appetite and Parental Feeding Practices in Toddlerhood

“…According to literature on the differences of child's sex on associations between maternal feeding practices and child's weight status, these results could be explained with societal expectations dealing with child's weight status: girls should be slim whereas boys are perceived as sturdier if they are larger [18]. As in a previous recent US study including 139 parent-child dyads, high infant's appetite was related to higher use of pressure to eat in some of our analyses, probably because of parental willingness to increase children's intake of "healthy foods", such as fruits and vegetables [56]. We also found that low infant's appetite was associated with higher use of pressure to eat, suggesting parental willingness to increase their infant's food intakes if the infant was perceived as having low appetite.…”

Parental Child-Feeding in the Context of Child Temperament and Appetitive Traits: Evidence for a Biopsychosocial Process Model of Appetite Self-Regulation and Weight Status

“…Children who are emotionally reactive and moody tend to exhibit food approach tendencies, including emotional overeating, which may then elicit restrictive feeding practices from parents and lead to high child weight status. Findings are consistent with prior research showing that both children's food approach and parents' restrictive feeding practices (particularly for weight-control purposes) are linked to higher weight status in children [20,[26][27][28].…”

“…parental child-feeding behaviors, for the purpose of the present study, we conceptualized parental controlling feeding behaviors (restriction and pressure to eat) as parents' responses to child appetitive traits, which then influence child body composition (parent perceptions of child weight, BMI, and body fat). This conceptualization is consistent with viewing parental controlling feeding practices as modifiable behaviors that could be a point of target for prevention and intervention efforts to reduce pediatric obesity or childhood overweight [20,29]. .…”

“…Child appetitive traits. Child appetitive traits (food approach and food avoidance) were reported on a five-point Likert scale (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, and 5 = always) by parents using the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) [20,36]. The food approach trait was assessed by the food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, desire for drinks, and emotional overeating subscales, with ratings being averaged across the 16 items (α = 0.86) to compute a score for food approach.…”

“…Child appetitive traits may impact child eating behavior, which may then influence their weight status [19]. Specifically, food approach tendencies (e.g., faster eating rates, greater responsiveness to food-cues, emotional overeating) have been linked to higher weight status, while food avoidance tendencies (e.g., food fussiness, slower eating rate) have been linked to lower weight status [18,20].…”