Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 52, Issue 3, June 2009, Pages 726-734
Appetite

Research report
Parent feeding restriction and child weight. The mediating role of child disinhibited eating and the moderating role of the parenting context

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2009.03.015Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective: We had two aims in this study of parenting and young children's eating and weight. The first aim was to test whether the association of parental restriction with young children's higher BMI is dependent on the intervening (i.e., mediating) role of their disinhibited eating. The second aim was to test how the parenting context may change the influence of parent restriction on children's eating. Parenting dimensions of supportiveness and structure were expected to attenuate the positive association between parent restriction and child disinhibited eating, whereas parenting dimensions of coerciveness and chaos were expected to strengthen this association. Methods: Caregivers of children aged 4–8 years (N = 230, 48% female) completed questionnaires and children's height and weight were measured to calculate BMI z-scores. Structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Results: Children's disinhibited eating partially mediated the association between parent restriction and children's BMI. However, restriction was found to be directly associated with children's BMI, and this direct association was stronger than the indirect one. Associations between restriction and children's disinhibited eating differed depending on the parenting context in the feeding domain, including supportiveness, coerciveness and chaotic parenting.

Section snippets

Eating behaviour

Research suggests that emotional and external food cues may operate together to trigger overeating (e.g., van Strien, Schippers, & Cox, 1995), a concept often referred to as disinhibited overeating. The psychosomatic and externality theories of obesity link overeating in response to negative emotions (emotional overeating) and food cues in the external environment (external eating) to children's increased energy intake and weight gain over time (e.g., Kaplan and Kaplan, 1957, Rodin and

Parenting behaviours and styles related to children's eating and weight

One aim of this study was to examine how parenting behaviours and parenting dimensions are associated with children's eating and weight. We focused on the parent feeding behaviour of restriction and parenting dimensions specific to the context of parent interactions with children in the eating/feeding domain (parenting dimensions). First, parent feeding behaviours have been shown to influence children's eating and parent restriction often is the strongest correlate of children's disinhibited

Participants

Participants were 247 caregivers (94% female) and their children aged 4–8 years (M = 5.74 years, SD = 0.89; 48% female). Children were attending preschool or grades 1 or 2 in two primary schools in Australia. Parents who participated had primary responsibility for the planning and preparation of family meals. Overall, 49% of parents returned questionnaires. Thirteen participants were excluded from data analyses due to excessive missing data. In addition, four parents completed a questionnaire for

Descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations

Table 1 summarizes means, standard deviations, and zero-order correlations between measurement variables. As expected, child BMI was significantly positively associated with disinhibited eating, r = .30, p < .01. Hence, children with a higher BMI had parents who reported that their children showed more disinhibited eating. With regards to intercorrelations between measures of parenting, the parenting dimensions of coercion, chaos, supportiveness and structure were significantly intercorrelated, in

Discussion

The findings of this study identify some aspects of parenting associated with children's eating and weight. Although the results of the study are correlational and do not provide evidence that parents play a socialising role in young children's disinhibited eating and BMI, they contribute to the evidence that some of the association of parenting with children's BMI may be mediated by children's disinhibited eating behaviour, and some parenting behaviours may have a differential association with

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    • Child feeding practices in children with Down syndrome in relationship to ethnicity and BMI

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      Evidence regarding the etiology of elevated BMI suggests that ethnic differences in child feeding practices are critical for our understanding of the development, prevention, and treatment of obesity. Extensive research in the child feeding literature has demonstrated that restrictive feeding practices (controlling a child's access to foods, pressuring a child to eat, and urging new foods) are linked to higher BMI in children, due to a child's inability to recognize his/her own satiety and hunger cues and manage his/her own energy intake (Johnson & Birch, 1994; Birch et al., 2001; Joyce & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2009). More recent literature suggests that while restriction may not be associated with BMI or increased child weight, it may prevent weight gain in younger children (Campbell et al., 2010).

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