Parent Instrumentality for Adolescent Eating and Activity.

Abstract

Parent-adolescent interactions have health implications for adolescents. Parents can be instrumental to healthy eating by purchasing fruits and vegetables or refraining from purchasing hedonic (low nutrient, high energy-dense) foods. Parents can be instrumental to healthy activity by modeling exercise behavior or discouraging sedentary activities. This research leverages theory on goal pursuit within relationships to investigate whether parents are instrumental to adolescents' eating and activity. Using a national sample of 1,556 parent-adolescent dyads, we conducted dyadic analyses to examine whether parent instrumentality (both parent-perceived and adolescent-perceived) for healthy behaviors was associated with adolescent engagement in those behaviors. We examined whether the link between parent instrumentality and adolescent BMI was mediated by parent instrumentality. We also explored whether parent instrumentality was associated with parent behaviors and parent BMI. Greater adolescent-perceived parent instrumentality was associated with greater fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity, and lower sedentariness. Parent-perceived parent instrumentality was associated with greater adolescent fruit and vegetable consumption, less hedonic eating, and more activity. Mediation modeling suggests that adolescent BMI is partially attributable to parent instrumentality for activity. Instrumental parents also engage in healthier behaviors, some of which in turn are associated with lower parent BMI. Findings have implications for the promotion of healthy eating and activity patterns among adolescents. Parental instrumentality for behavior may be an important target for interventions to improve adolescent health, and interventions may be most successful in facilitating adolescent behavior change if they target both parent- and adolescent-perceived parent instrumentality.