Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 53, Issue 3, December 2009, Pages 384-389
Appetite

Research report
Maternal psychosocial predictors of controlling parental feeding styles and practices

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2009.08.001Get rights and content

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to explore the relative contribution of parental depression, anxiety and stress and parenting satisfaction and efficacy to the explanation of variance in controlling parental feeding styles and practices. The sample comprised 124 mothers (M = 36.80 years, SD = 4.62 years) who reported on both themselves and a selected child (59 male, 65 female; M = 6.46 years, SD = 0.95 years). Mothers completed several questionnaires examining demographic information, parental feeding styles, parental feeding practices, parental depression, anxiety and stress and parenting satisfaction and efficacy. Parenting satisfaction contributed significantly to the prediction of the parental feeding practice pressure to eat. Parenting satisfaction and parental anxiety contributed significantly to the prediction of the parental feeding practice restriction. The results of this study provide important insight into maternal characteristics associated with the use of controlling parental feeding styles and practices.

Introduction

Parents play an important role in the development of children's eating habits through the parental feeding styles and practices they adopt (Ventura & Birch, 2008). A number of controlling parental feeding styles and practices have been linked to unhealthy eating styles, diet and weight in children (Clark et al., 2007, Ventura and Birch, 2008). Identifying parental characteristics associated with the use of controlling parental feeding styles and practices will assist in the development of interventions to modify them.

Parental feeding styles are the overarching feeding approaches a parent adopts consistently across all parental feeding situations (Ventura & Birch, 2008). Parental feeding practices are the specific strategies that parents use in an attempt to maintain or modify their child's eating style and diet; these practices may vary between contexts (Ventura & Birch, 2008). For example, a mother may use different parental feeding practices for each of her children, or change practices as her child grows while retaining the same general parental feeding style over time and situations.

Controlling parental feeding styles and practices have been linked with a range of unhealthy eating styles (e.g. eating in the absence of hunger; Fisher and Birch, 2000, Fisher and Birch, 2002), dietary patterns (e.g. decreased vegetable consumption; Galloway et al., 2005, Patrick et al., 2005) and weight in children (Francis et al., 2001, Lee et al., 2001). While the majority of studies indicate that controlling parental feeding styles are associated with negative child outcomes, some studies have reported no relationship (Clark et al., 2007, Montgomery et al., 2006) and others have reported that the parental feeding practice restriction is associated with lower weight in children (Farrow & Blissett, 2008). More recently, it has been suggested that control itself does not lead to poor diet outcomes, rather it is the method of control that determines outcomes (Brown et al., 2008, Ogden et al., 2006). For instance, covert control has been linked with the consumption of fewer unhealthy snacks, increased fruit and vegetable consumption and lower levels of food neophobia in children while overt control has been linked with the consumption of more healthy snacks and increased fruit and vegetable consumption in children (Brown et al., 2008, Ogden et al., 2006).

A number of parental factors are associated with parental feeding practices. Parental perception of a child's weight (Birch et al., 2001) and concern about child weight (Francis et al., 2001) are associated with the use of controlling parental feeding practices. Parental psychological health has also been linked to controlling parental feeding styles and practices. For instance, higher levels of psychological distress (Blissett & Farrow, 2007), maternal anxious psychopathology (Farrow & Blissett, 2005) and parental depression, anxiety and stress (Hurley, Black, Papas, & Caufield, 2008) have been shown to be associated with restriction in infants. One study failed to demonstrate an association between maternal depression and the use of restriction or pressure to eat in infants (Farrow & Blissett, 2005). However, in one of the only studies looking at children aged 5 years, higher levels of parental depression was linked with restriction and pressure to eat (Francis et al., 2001).

These findings are generally consistent with previous research linking parental psychological health with ineffective parent behaviours not specific to the feeding context. Parental psychological health has been linked to hostile and coercive parenting behaviours (Lovejoy, Graczyk, O’Hare, & Neuman, 2000) and higher levels of parental control (van der Bruggen, Stams, & Bögels, 2008). Low levels of parenting efficacy (Hill & Bush, 2001) and parenting satisfaction (Simons, Beaman, Conger, & Chao, 1993) are also associated with the use of ineffective and controlling parenting practices in the general parenting literature. These findings suggest that parenting satisfaction and efficacy may be important in parental feeding however these factors have received limited research in the feeding context.

Given the potential negative child outcomes associated with controlling parental feeding styles and practices, and the recent increase in interventions to improve parental feeding styles and practices, research is needed to identify parental factors related to the use of such methods. The aim of the current study was to explore the relative contribution of parental depression, anxiety and stress and parenting satisfaction and efficacy to the explanation of variance in controlling parental feeding styles and practices.

Section snippets

Participants

The sample comprised mothers (N = 124) recruited from a larger study investigating children's lunchbox contents (Miles, Brennan, Mitchell, & Matthews, 2009). To partake in the study, participants were required to be over the age of 18 years, have a child attending primary school and have an understanding of spoken and written English. One hundred and seventy-six questionnaire packages were distributed and 124 were returned (response rate 70.5%). Mothers ages ranged from 26 to 47 years (M = 36.80

Results

Descriptive statistics for parental feeding styles and practices, parental depression, anxiety and stress and parenting satisfaction and efficacy are presented in Table 1. According to the classification offered by Lovibond and Lovibond (1995) the mean scores for the depression, anxiety and stress subscales fell in the “normal” range indicating that on average, mothers were not experiencing clinical levels of depression, anxiety or stress. The PSOC-satisfaction subscale t(121) = 12.37, p < .001 and

Discussion

Two groups of analyses were undertaken in the current study. Firstly, a series of univariate correlational analyses were undertaken to explore whether parental feeding styles and practices were associated with parental depression, anxiety and stress and parenting satisfaction and efficacy. Following this a series of multivariate multiple regressions were undertaken to explore the unique relative contribution of parental depression, anxiety and stress and parenting satisfaction and efficacy to

References (33)

  • J. Ogden et al.

    Expanding the concept of parental control: a role for overt and covert control in children's snacking behaviour?

    Appetite

    (2006)
  • H. Patrick et al.

    The benefits of authoritative feeding style: caregiver feeding styles and children's food consumption patterns

    Appetite

    (2005)
  • M. Antony et al.

    Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales in clinical groups and a community sample

    Psychological Assessment

    (1998)
  • D.E. Belsley et al.

    Regression diagnostics: identifying influential data and sources of collinearity

    (1980)
  • J. Blissett et al.

    Predictors of maternal control of feeding at 1 and 2 years of age

    International Journal of Obesity

    (2007)
  • H.R. Clark et al.

    How do parents’ child-feeding behaviours influence child weight? Implications for childhood obesity policy

    Journal of Public Health (Oxford)

    (2007)
  • Cited by (66)

    • Mental health matters: Parent mental health and children's emotional eating

      2023, Appetite
      Citation Excerpt :

      The findings from this study are consistent with findings from previous studies. To this point, a previous study indicated that anxiety, depression, and stress together were associated with nonresponsive parent feeding practices, such as the use of restriction and pressure to eat (Mitchell et al., 2009). Results from longitudinal studies have also shown that mothers with symptoms of general psychological distress at 6 months after childbirth were more likely to engage in nonresponsive feeding practices with their 1-year-old children, which included controlling (Blissett & Farrow, 2007) and restrictive (Farrow & Blissett, 2005) feeding practices.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text