The moderating role of parent gender on the relationship between restrictive feeding and a child's self–regulation in eating: Results from mother-only samples may not apply to both parents

Abstract

Self-regulation in eating is increasingly becoming an area of interest especially in child obesity and development literature and prevention. This study aims to examine differences in the impact of overtly restrictive feeding practices across mothers and fathers on child's self-regulation in eating. A moderated multiple regression model was run to test the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between overtly restrictive feeding practices and self-regulation. A simple slope analysis was then used to probe the interaction term between overt restriction in feeding and gender. Results from a moderation analysis indicate parental gender to be a significant factor affecting the relationship between overtly restrictive feeding and a child's self-regulation in eating. On probing the interaction, the simple slope was negative and significant when gender was female meaning that women's use of overt restriction negatively impacts children's ability to self-regulate in eating compared to men. Feeding studies often generalize findings from mother-only samples to all parents but these results provide evidence against doing so.