How Time in the US and Race/Ethnicity Shape Parents Feeding Practices and Child Diet Quality

Abstract

Objectives Childhood obesity is a critical public health issue with short and long-term health and financial burdens. Studies show that childhood obesity is higher among children of immigrant/refugee households compared to children whose parents were born in the United States. Poor child dietary intake is a critical risk factor for elevated obesity prevalence. Nonetheless, parents feeding practices are known to be associated with child dietary intake. Thus, this study aimed to examine the associations between length of residence time in the US of migrants/refugees, parents feeding practices, and child diet quality while also taking into consideration race/ethnicity. Methods Data are from baseline measures of a longitudinal cohort study called Family Matters. The sample includes 1307 children ages 5–9 and their families from six racial/ethnic backgrounds. Results Results showed that feeding practices of immigrant/refugee parents changed in relation to their length of residency in the US, in particular, with regard to using directive (e.g., restriction), non-directive (e.g., modeling), and emotional feeding practices. Additionally, race/ethnicity was found to influence the relation between time length in the US and parents feeding practices. Moreover, the diet quality score changed in relation to parents' length of time in the US. For example, Hmong children had the poorest diet quality compared to African American, Native American, Hispanic, Somali, and White children. Conclusions Future research should consider studying more in-depth why parent feeding practices may change when parents move to the US and explore whether there is a combination of parent feeding practices that are most useful in promoting healthful child diet quality. It is also important to further examine why child diet quality declines (e.g., Hmong children) with parents' time living in the US as a migrant/refugee. Funding Sources Research is supported by grant number R01HL126171 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (PI: Berge). Content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Race/Ethnicity Predicts School Meal Participation

“…Individuals who have lived outside of the United States were also most likely to participate in breakfast. Othman et al discovered that immigrant/refugee parents changed feeding practices in relation to the length of residence in the United States, thus this may be related to school breakfast participation 27 . Additionally, it is possible that individuals who have spent time outside of the United States are more likely to have a larger palate of preferences, thus barriers to school breakfast participation seen relative to taste and appeal may not have the same influence.…”