Parent Feeding Practices in the Context of Food Insecurity

Abstract

The process of feeding is complex and highly dependent on parent, child, social, and environmental factors. Given the rising rates of food insecurity and concomitant poor nutrition and health, the purpose of this article was to outline the important and complex ways in which the context of food insecurity can impact parent feeding practices. Key factors discussed here include the impact of food insecurity on: expectations for motherhood, structural constraints, stress and depression, parents’ perceptions of health and child weight, and intergenerational transmission of parent feeding practices. Future research needs are also identified and discussed.

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

“…To our knowledge, this is the first prospective study to evaluate food parenting before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using the rich methodological strengths of EMA. Whereas traditional surveys assessing food-related parenting practices ask parents to retrospectively report on their usual use of specific practices ( Wardle et al, 2002 ), EMA relies on repeated assessment in real-time of the diversity of practices parents use across meals and days ( Arlinghaus & Laska, 2021 ). Results revealed that most parents of preschoolers use a variety of food parenting practices in the day-to-day that span four higher-order domains of coercive control (e.g., restriction, pressure-to-eat), indulgence (e.g., anticipatory catering, child choosing meals), structure (e.g., mealtime rules and routines), and autonomy support (e.g., guided choices, nutrition education).…”

“…Multiple daily measures were collected from parents using EMA over a period of ten days prior to COVID-19 and during COVID-19. Standardized EMA data collection protocols from prior studies ( Arlinghaus & Laska, 2021 ) were used, including: (1) signal contingent, (2) event contingent, and (3) end-of-day EMA mobile surveys. Parents completed these EMA surveys using their own electronic device.…”

“…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 ).…”

“…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 ). In alignment with these findings, a recent qualitative study by Loth and colleagues conducted within a racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of parents of young children, found that parents described adapting or shifting their approach to feeding both within and across meals, with the goal of avoiding power struggles with their children around food and mealtimes ( Birch, 1998 ).…”

COVID-19′s Impact on American Women’s Food Insecurity Foreshadows Vulnerabilities to Climate Change

“…Women who experience intimate-partner violence are much more likely to miss work due to poor health, have difficulty remembering and concentrating on tasks, and have difficulty doing errands on their own [ 59 ]. Domestic violence may also lead to women eating less or lower quality foods in order to avoid reprisal-type violence [ 60 , 61 ]. Given that the pandemic has required much of the world’s population to shelter at home, millions of women and girls have been locked in homes with abusive family members, causing a sharp increase in GBV that has been referred to as the shadow pandemic within the pandemic [ 62 ].…”