Like parent, like child: do children eat like the adults in the household?

Abstract

This study is based on data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households in the Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII 1994–96) to examine the relationship between the dietary intakes of the female heads of household (FHH) and 2–18 years old children residing in the same household (n=3144). Association between FHH's diet on childrens' intake was investigated by fitting multiple regression models controlling for socio‐demographic variables. Analysis was conducted by in STATA 10.1. FHH intake levels were only associated with those of male and female children for few food groups or nutrients: Regression coefficients were statistically significant between FHH's and male children's vegetables (0.63 (p‐value<0.001)) and vitamin A (0.65 (p‐value<0.001)) intakes while significant correlation coefficients between FHH's and female children's intake for vegetable intake was only 0.54 (p‐value<0.001) and meat (0.47 (p‐value<0.001)). This study indicates that correlations between dietary intakes of FHH and the intakes of the children residing in the same household were lower than anticipated. Further research is needed to understand the importance of adult modeling of dietary intake behavior on childrens' diets.Support from NIH grant number: R503HD050239