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The role of mindful parenting and children’s weight in mothers’ child-feeding practices

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Abstract

Purpose

This study explores whether mindful parenting dimensions and children’s body mass index (BMI) z-scores are associated with mothers’ concern about child weight and child-feeding practices (i.e., responsibility for child feeding, pressure to eat, restriction, food reward, and monitoring).

Methods

The sample included 576 mothers of children/adolescents (7–18 years old) with normal weight (BMI = 3–85th percentiles) and 490 mothers of children/adolescents with overweight/obesity (BMI ≥ 85th percentile; 59% undergoing nutritional treatment). Mothers completed the Portuguese versions of the Interpersonal Mindfulness on Parenting Scale and the Child Feeding Questionnaire.

Results

Mothers of children with overweight/obesity undergoing nutritional treatment presented lower levels of emotional awareness of the child, nonjudgmental acceptance of parental functioning, and pressure to eat and higher levels of concern about child weight, restriction and monitoring than the other groups presented. Almost all mindful parenting dimensions and children’s zBMI were significantly associated with mothers’ concern and child-feeding practices.

Conclusions

Mindful parenting dimensions and children’s weight seem to be important predictors of mothers’ child-feeding practices and of their concern about child weight, which suggests that a mindful approach in parenting might help mothers adopt more adaptive and weight-adapted child-feeding practices.

Level of Evidence

Level III, case-control analytic study.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under Grant [reference SFRH/BD/102722/2014].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Group “Relationships, Development and Health”, Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention (CINEICC), Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Rua do Colégio Novo, 3030-115, Coimbra, Portugal

    M. J. Gouveia, M. C. Canavarro & H. Moreira

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  1. M. J. Gouveia
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  2. M. C. Canavarro
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  3. H. Moreira
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Correspondence to M. J. Gouveia.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Gouveia, M.J., Canavarro, M.C. & Moreira, H. The role of mindful parenting and children’s weight in mothers’ child-feeding practices. Eat Weight Disord 25, 427–435 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0615-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0615-x

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