Food parenting practices and children's weight outcomes: A systematic review of prospective studies

Beckers, Desi; Karssen, Levie T; Vink, Jacqueline M.; Burk, William J.; Larsen, Junilla K.

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2020.105010

Cited by 52 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Indulgence has been discussed as both a sub-domain of structure ( Vaughn et al, 2016 ), as well as a fourth unique high-level domain of potential importance ( Loth et al, 2018 ); indulgent behaviors include being overly permissive by allowing a child complete freedom over what, when, and how much to eat, or engaging in anticipatory catering by only purchasing foods they know the child will enjoy eating to avoid power struggles over food. Laboratory, cross-sectional, and longitudinal research studies to date have generally found that structure and autonomy support are associated with children's healthful dietary intake and eating behaviors, whereas coercive and indulgent practices have been associated with healthful dietary intake, a higher body mass index, and the development of maladaptive eating behaviors over time ( Beckers et al, 2020 ; Faith et al, 2004 ; Larsen et al, 2020 ; Shloim et al, 2015 ; Yee et al, 2017 ). The conceptual framework put forward by Vaughn and colleagues to guide future research in this area ( Vaughn et al, 2016 ) describes feeding practices within the structure and autonomy support domain as “supportive” and those practices within the coercive control and indulgent domains as “unsupportive”.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that parental stress and family-level food insecurity have the potential to impact children's eating behaviors through changes to food-related parenting practices ( Adams et al, 2020 ; Arlinghaus & Laska, 2021 ; Berge et al, 2017 , 2020 ). Specifically, previous research conducted with diverse families with school-aged children found that high levels of momentary parental stress or depressive symptoms experienced earlier in the day were associated with more controlling parent feeding practices at dinner the same evening ( Beckers et al, 2020 ; Larsen et al, 2020 ). Additionally, parents experiencing food insecurity are more likely to report engagement in coercive or controlling, as well as indulgent, food-related parenting practices as compared to families without food insecurity ( Adams et al, 2020 ; Arlinghaus & Laska, 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19 pandemic shifts in food-related parenting practices within an ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of families of preschool-aged children

Loth

Wolfson

et al. 2022

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This study aimed to evaluate the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on food parenting practices used by parents of young children. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) was used to evaluate parents’ use of coercive, indulgent, structured, and autonomy supportive food parenting practices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among a diverse racial/ethnic sample (n = 72) of parents of preschool-aged children. The impact of parent and child mood/behavior on use of specific food parenting practices was also evaluated during both time periods. Results revealed that most parents of preschoolers use a variety of food parenting practices, including coercive control, indulgence, structure, and autonomy support practices. The use of structured and autonomy supportive practices, however, decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the types of practices used by parents were contextually associated with the mood of the parent as well as child mood. Parent negative mood during COVID-19 was associated with higher levels of coercive control and indulgence and lower levels of structure, whereas child positive child mood was associated with greater use of autonomy supportive practices. These findings suggest that effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on family dynamics around feeding young children include shifts away from theoretically supportive approaches to parenting and highlight the roles of parent and child mood/behavior as potentially important momentary influences on food parenting during this time. Public health practitioners and clinicians working with parents of young children during COVID-19, and in years to come, should consider the potential impact of parental mood and stress, as well as child mood and behaviors. Additional research is needed to better understand how to best help parents maintain supportive feeding practices in the face of challenging situations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 pandemic shifts in food-related parenting practices within an ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of families of preschool-aged children

Loth

Wolfson

et al. 2022

Appetite

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“…Although the child's mechanisms of food intake self-regulation are innate [63], they change due to the influence of the environment; parents' behaviors can contribute significantly to this process [64,65]. Beckers et al (2021) recently concluded that autonomy supporting practices and some structuring practices (e.g.,…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

“…rules and limits) were understudied and inconsistently measured in prospective quantitative studies with parents of 2-18 years old children [66]. The adoption of positive practices that provide a flexible but structured home food environment, where children can participate and be involved in developing their healthy eating behaviors, is possible at all developmental stages and allows a positive parental continuum of influence since the child's early years [13].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Changing parental feeding practices through web-based interventions: A systematic review and meta-analysis

et al. 2021

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Web-based parent interventions designed to promote children’s healthy eating patterns can enhance parents’ engagement and facilitate behavior change. However, it is still unclear how much the existing programs focus on changing parental feeding practices, and if so, which behavioral methodologies are used and how effective these interventions are in changing these parental behaviors. This systematic review and meta-analysis studied randomized controlled trials of web-based interventions targeting parents of 0-12-year-old children, aiming to promote children’s healthy diet or prevent nutrition-related problems and reporting parental feeding behaviors as one of the outcomes. We conducted an electronic search in four databases from the earliest publication date until February 2020. Of the 1271 records found, we retained twelve studies about nine programs, comprising 1766 parents that completed the baseline evaluation. We found recent interventions, mainly directed to parents of young children, with small, non-clinical samples, and mostly theory-based. The programs were heterogeneous regarding the type of intervention delivered and its duration. The most assessed parental feeding practices were Restriction, Pressure to eat, and Food availability/accessibility. The behavior change techniques Instruction on how to perform the behavior, Demonstration of the behavior, and Identification of self as role model were frequently used. Meta-analytic results indicated that most programs’ effects were small for the evaluated parental practices, except for Food availability/accessibility that benefited the intervention group only when all follow-up measurements were considered. The development of high-quality and controlled trials with larger samples is needed to determine with greater certainty the interventions’ impact on parental feeding behaviors. The more frequent inclusion of measures to evaluate parental practices to support children’s autonomy and of self-regulatory strategies as intervention components should be considered when designing programs.

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“…Both structured and autonomy supportive practices are generally linked to more positive intake and weight outcomes among children and adolescents. Coercive control is characterized by constraint and obtrusive parenting behaviors aimed at controlling adolescent children’s eating, emotion, or behavior, including food restriction, pressure, threats, and emotional and instrumental feeding, and is known to be associated with more unhealthy eating and higher adolescent BMI [ 25 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the Prospective Link between Parental Stress and Adolescent Snack Intake or Weight Outcome Mediated by Food Parenting Practices?

et al. 2021

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Parental stress may influence adolescents’ food intake and weight development over time, however, it is largely unknown why this is the case. This study examines whether the link between parental stress and adolescents’ snack intake and weight outcome is mediated by food parenting practices (FPPs). Participants included 400 parents and their adolescent children (aged 12–16) who completed questionnaires. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used to assess parental general stress levels and the Adolescent Food Parenting Questionnaire (AFPQ) to assess FPPs. Multiple mediation analyses with parallel mediators were performed, with parental general stress as an independent variable and adolescent snack intake and zBMI as dependent variables. FPPs (autonomy support, coercive control, modeling, healthy structure, snack structure) were entered as mediators in the model, adjusted for covariates. Autonomy support mediated the link between parental general stress and adolescent savory snack and sweet snack intake at follow-up. Parents who reported higher stress levels provided less autonomy support, which resulted in more adolescent snacking. None of the other FPPs mediated any link between parental stress and intake or weight outcome, and no significant indirect effects were observed with zBMI as an outcome variable. Further research should replicate this finding and may further examine underlying mechanisms.

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Food parenting practices and children's weight outcomes: A systematic review of prospective studies

Cited by 52 publications

References 72 publications

COVID-19 pandemic shifts in food-related parenting practices within an ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of families of preschool-aged children

COVID-19 pandemic shifts in food-related parenting practices within an ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of families of preschool-aged children

Changing parental feeding practices through web-based interventions: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Is the Prospective Link between Parental Stress and Adolescent Snack Intake or Weight Outcome Mediated by Food Parenting Practices?

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