Abstract
BackgroundChildren’s food preference and intake patterns are affected by parental child feeding practices. The objective was to determine patterns of food parenting practices regarding junk food and sugary drinks (JS) and investigate their associations with demographic characteristics and dietary intake in a large cohort of parents and their children (12–17 years).MethodsDyadic survey data from the cross-sectional, internet-based Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating Study, conducted in 2014, were analyzed using latent class analysis to identify patterns of use for six JS parenting practices – negative emotions, restriction, monitoring, availability, modeling, and child involvement – based on parent and child report. Model covariates included self-reported parent and child sex, age (child only), body mass index category (based on height and weight), added sugars intake, and legitimacy of parental authority.ResultsBased on 1657 parent-child dyads, five parenting practice patterns were identified representing different levels of practice use – Complete Influencers (28%; reference class), Indifferent Influencers (21%), Negative Influencers (20%), Minimal Influencers (18%), and Disagreeing Influencers (13%). Compared to older child dyads, younger child dyads were less likely to belong to Indifferent and Minimal Influencers (79 and 63% lower odds, respectively). Greater parent added sugars intake increased the odds of belonging to Indifferent and Negative Influencers (4 and 5% higher for every teaspoon increase, respectively) while greater child added sugars intake decreased the odds of belonging to Minimal Influencers (6% lower for every teaspoon increase). Compared to dyads with high scores, dyads with low child scores for legitimacy of parental authority regarding JS were 18 times as likely to belong to Disagreeing Influencers.ConclusionsThe study findings suggest that parents utilize distinct patterns of feeding practices regarding JS ranging from use of many practices, use of some practices, to low use of any practice, with differential associations with parent and child intakes of added sugars. Counseling or intervening with parents to use a mix of structure practices, such as availability and modeling, to positively influence their child’s and possibly their own intake of sugary snacks and drinks may prove more efficacious than use of coercive control practices, such as negative emotions.
Highlights
Children’s food preference and intake patterns are affected by parental child feeding practices
Of the 1945 parent-child dyads enrolled in the FLASHE study, 1657 (85%) were included in the present analyses
The present study’s finding that dyads with older children are more likely to belong to Indifferent or Minimal Influencers as compared to Complete Influencers confirms results from an investigation of family perceptions of child feeding practices in which older versus younger siblings reported significantly less restriction and parents reported feeling less responsibility for feeding their older versus younger children [15]
Summary
Children’s food preference and intake patterns are affected by parental child feeding practices. The objective was to determine patterns of food parenting practices regarding junk food and sugary drinks (JS) and investigate their associations with demographic characteristics and dietary intake in a large cohort of parents and their children (12–17 years). Recent evidence suggests that added sugars consumption is decreasing in US populations, intake levels for both children and adults (14 and 17%, respectively) exceed recommendations [3, 4]. A study examining consumption of junk food (including sugary drinks) in US children and adolescents found that junk food intake decreased by about 10% from 2003 to 2016 [7]. Efforts that encourage and support children and adults to adopt healthy eating patterns that limit intake of junk food and sugary drinks are needed still
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