scholarly journals Influences of Parental Snacking-Related Attitudes, Behaviours and Nutritional Knowledge on Young Children’s Healthy and Unhealthy Snacking: The ToyBox Study

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Leigh Gibson ◽  
Odysseas Androutsos ◽  
Luis Moreno ◽  
Paloma Flores-Barrantes ◽  
Piotr Socha ◽  
...  

This study investigated parental influences on preschool children’s healthy and unhealthy snacking in relation to child obesity in a large cross-sectional multinational sample. Parents and 3–5 year-old child dyads (n = 5185) in a kindergarten-based study provided extensive sociodemographic, dietary practice and food intake data. Parental feeding practices that were derived from questionnaires were examined for associations with child healthy and unhealthy snacking in adjusted multilevel models, including child estimated energy expenditure, parental education, and nutritional knowledge. Parental healthy and unhealthy snacking was respectively associated with their children’s snacking (both p < 0.0001). Making healthy snacks available to their children was specifically associated with greater child healthy snack intake (p < 0.0001). Conversely, practices that were related to unhealthy snacking, i.e., being permissive about unhealthy snacking and acceding to child demands for unhealthy snacks, were associated with greater consumption of unhealthy snacks by children, but also less intake of healthy snacks (all p < 0.0001). Parents having more education and greater nutritional knowledge of snack food recommendations had children who ate more healthy snacks (all p < 0.0001) and fewer unhealthy snacks (p = 0.002, p < 0.0001, respectively). In the adjusted models, child obesity was not related to healthy or unhealthy snack intake in these young children. The findings support interventions that address parental practices and distinguish between healthy and unhealthy snacking to influence young children’s dietary patterns.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 713-713
Author(s):  
Christie Kirchoff ◽  
Elizabeth Goico ◽  
Cristina Palacios

Abstract Objectives The college food environment plays an integral role in student dietary intake during the formative transition from adolescence to adulthood. During this time, students experience profound changes to their level of responsibility and autonomy while also establishing lifelong habits. These changes are of concern because obesity and chronic disease are the long term health consequences of poor patterns of eating, and yet research on this topic is sparse. This study aims to uncover the pattern of snack consumption and its influence on selecting healthier versions of snacks at a large Hispanic serving university in South Florida. Methods A cross-sectional survey was used to elicit self-reported snacking practices of college students via a web-based Qualtrics survey in the Spring of 2019. Statistical analysis using SPSS 25 included descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis performed to examine the frequency and percentages for dependent and independent variables. Logistic regression was run to determine the influence of the frequency and amount of unhealthy snack food consumption and choosing low-fat options. Results Of the 483 respondents (24% males), 93.4% reported consuming unhealthy snack foods at least once a week. Additionally, the pattern of snack consumption was 72% (383) chips and salty snacks, 65% (316) cookies, 64% (307) chocolate bars, and 58% (281) candies. The results also indicated that those who consumed unhealthy snacks more frequently were 1.85 times more likely to choose low-fat options than those who rarely consumed unhealthy snacks (AOR = 1.85, CI (1.04 – 3.30)). Conclusions These findings suggest that students are seeking healthier options even when snacking. As a responsible institution, the university can implement a snack policy that promotes a healthy diet and is in line with what students are seeking by offering more low-fat options. Funding Sources None.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frøydis Nordgård Vik ◽  
Erik Grasaas ◽  
Maaike E. M. Polspoel ◽  
Margrethe Røed ◽  
Elisabet R. Hillesund ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundPositive parental feeding practices and a higher frequency of family meals are related to healthier child dietary habits. Parents play an essential role when it comes to the development of their child’s eating habits. However, parents are increasingly distracted by their mobile phone during mealtime. The aim of this study was to describe the feeding practices and daily shared family meals among parents who use and do not use mobile phone during mealtime, and further to explore the associations between the use of mobile phone during mealtime and feeding practices and daily shared family meals, respectively.Methods Cross-sectional data from the Food4toddler study were used to explore the association between mobile use during meals and parental feeding practices including family meals. In 2017/2018 parents of toddlers were recruited through social media to participate in the study. In total 298 out of 404 who volunteered to participate, filled in a baseline questionnaire, including questions from the comprehensive feeding practices questionnaire (CFPQ), questions of frequency of family meals and use of mobile phone during meals. ResultsHerein, 4 out of 10 parents reported various levels of phone use (meal distraction) during mealtimes. Parental phone use was associated with lower use of positive parental feeding practices like modelling (B= -1.05 (95% CI -1.69; -0.41)) and family food environment (B= -0.77 (95% CI -1.51; -0.03)), and more use of negative parental feeding practices like emotional regulation (B= 0.73 (95% CI 0.32; 1.14)) and the use of pressure to eat (B= 1.22 (95% CI 0.41; 2.03)). Furthermore, parental phone use was associated with a lower frequency of daily family breakfast (OR= 0.50 (95% CI 0.31; 0.82)) and dinner (OR= 0.57 (95% CI 0.35; 0.93)). ConclusionsMobile phone use is common among parents during mealtimes, and findings indicate that parental phone use is associated with less healthy feeding practices and shared family meals. These findings highlight the importance of making parents aware of potential impacts of meal distractions. Trial registration: ISRCTN92980420. Registered 13 September 2017. Retrospectively registered.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 294-294
Author(s):  
Lauren Wallace ◽  
Elizabeth Racine ◽  
Rajib Paul ◽  
Shafie Gholizadeh ◽  
Caitlan Webster

Abstract Objectives People under stress tend to use unhealthy coping mechanisms including using products like alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy snacks. The purpose of this study is to assess how measures of community socio-economic status, which may be proxies for community stress, are associated with the sales of unhealthy products (alcohol, tobacco, and unhealthy snacks) at a discount variety store chain. Specifically, we consider the following measures of community socio-economic status: population racial/ethnic composition, % of households on SNAP, % of households without a vehicle, walkability score and median community income. Methods Mixed effects linear regressions with random effects were used to examine the relationship between the weekly unit sales (per 1000 population) of three outcome variables (tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy snacks) and community socio-economic factors: % of households on SNAP, % of households without a vehicle, and median community income. Results The sales of alcohol, tobacco, and unhealthy snacks increased as the % of the population participating in SNAP increased. Other measures of community socio-economic status were not significantly (at 5% significance level) associated with tobacco or unhealthy snack sales. However, for alcohol sales, increases in: the median household income, walkability score and % of African American residents, were associated with a decrease in alcohol sales. Conclusions Low income neighborhoods frequently experience greater health burden compared to higher income neighborhoods. Understanding and quantifying the relationship between financial stress and unhealthy product consumption can help public health professionals intervene before chronic diseases manifest. Funding Sources Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frøydis N. Vik ◽  
Erik Grasaas ◽  
Maaike E. M. Polspoel ◽  
Margrethe Røed ◽  
Elisabet R. Hillesund ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Positive parental feeding practices and a higher frequency of family meals are related to healthier child dietary habits. Parents play an essential role when it comes to the development of their child’s eating habits. However, parents are increasingly distracted by their mobile phone during mealtimes. The aim of this study was to describe the feeding practices and daily shared family meals among parents who use and do not use a mobile phone during mealtimes, and further to explore the associations between the use of a mobile phone during mealtimes and feeding practices and daily shared family meals, respectively. Methods Cross-sectional data from the Food4toddler study were used to explore the association between mobile use during meals and parental feeding practices including family meals. In 2017/2018 parents of toddlers were recruited through social media to participate in the study. In total 298 out of 404 who volunteered to participate, filled in a baseline questionnaire, including questions from the comprehensive feeding practices questionnaire (CFPQ), questions of frequency of family meals and use of mobile phone during meals. Results Herein, 4 out of 10 parents reported various levels of phone use (meal distraction) during mealtimes. Parental phone use was associated with lower use of positive parental feeding practices like modelling (B = − 1.05 (95% CI -1.69; − 0.41)) and family food environment (B = − 0.77 (95% CI -1.51; − 0.03)), and more use of negative parental feeding practices like emotional regulation (B = 0.73 (95% CI 0.32; 1.14)) and the use of pressure to eat (B = 1.22 (95% CI 0.41; 2.03)). Furthermore, parental phone use was associated with a lower frequency of daily family breakfast (OR = 0.50 (95% CI 0.31; 0.82)) and dinner (OR = 0.57 (95% CI 0.35; 0.93)). Conclusions Mobile phone use is common among parents during mealtimes, and findings indicate that parental phone use is associated with less healthy feeding practices and shared family meals. These findings highlight the importance of making parents aware of potential impacts of meal distractions. Trial registration ISRCTN92980420. Registered 13 September 2017. Retrospectively registered.


2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 609-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha B Boots ◽  
Marika Tiggemann ◽  
Nadia Corsini

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify broad overarching feeding styles that parents may use and their effects on pre-school-aged children’s healthy and unhealthy snack intake. Design: Cross sectional study Methods: Mothers ( n = 611) of children aged 2–7 years (mean age 3.9 years) completed an online survey assessing parent-feeding strategies and parent-reported child snack intake. Data were analysed in two phases. First, principal components analysis identified three major feeding styles that were labelled overt control, covert control and parent modelling. Then, structural equation modelling was used to see whether these factors were related differentially to reported child snack intake. Results: The intake of healthy snack food was associated with higher covert control and parent modelling and lower overt control. The reverse was true for unhealthy snack intake, with the intake of these foods associated with lower covert control and parental modelling, and higher overt control. Conclusion: Our findings show that parent-feeding styles that attempt to control the child’s environment seem to have a positive impact on snack intake, while styles aimed at controlling the child (overt control) seem to have a detrimental impact.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (13) ◽  
pp. 2415-2423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerica M Berge ◽  
Allan D Tate ◽  
Amanda Trofholz ◽  
Katherine Conger ◽  
Dianne Neumark-Sztainer

AbstractObjectiveLittle is known about whether siblings have similar or different eating behaviours or whether parents tailor their feeding practices to different siblings. The main objectives of the present study were to examine similarities and differences in child eating behaviours and parental feeding practices with siblings and to determine whether child eating behaviours and parental feeding practices differ depending on sibling concordant (i.e. both siblings overweight or healthy weight) or discordant (i.e. one sibling overweight and one sibling healthy weight) weight status.DesignCross-sectional, mixed-methods study.SettingIn-home visits were conducted by research staff. Surveys were conducted with parents and anthropometry was collected on parents and siblings.SubjectsChildren (n 88) aged 6–12 years (mean age 9 (sd 2) years), their parents (mean age 34 (sd 7) years) and near-age siblings (mean age 9 (sd 4) years) from diverse racial/ethnic and low-income households participated.ResultsResults indicated that siblings with higher BMI engaged in higher levels of emotional eating compared with siblings with lower BMI. Additionally, results indicated that when families had sibling dyads discordant on weight status, the sibling who was overweight had higher food enjoyment and lower levels of food satiety. Additionally, within siblings with discordant weight status, parents were more likely to use restrictive feeding practices with the overweight sibling and pressure-to-eat and encouragement-to-eat feeding practices with the healthy-weight sibling.ConclusionsFamily-based childhood obesity interventions may need to assess for sibling weight status when researching the home environment and intervene with parents to avoid using restriction or pressure-to-eat feeding practices when siblings are discordant on weight status.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (OCE2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Rahill ◽  
Aileen Kennedy ◽  
Laura Kehoe ◽  
Janette Walton ◽  
Albert Flynn ◽  
...  

AbstractResearch suggests that food fussiness (FF) and food neophobia (FN) are two separate constructs. Food fussiness is the tendency to be selective about a large proportion of familiar and unfamiliar foods, while food neophobia is the refusal of novel foods. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the association between parental feeding practices and child's FF or FN.Analysis was based on cross-sectional data from the nationally representative Irish National Children's Food Survey II (NCFSII; 2017–2018). The NCFSII collected detailed eating behaviour data from children aged 5–12 (n = 596) using the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ). This questionnaire contained four items from the food fussiness subscale that represented FN and two items that represented FF. The Feeding Practices & Structure Questionnaire (FPSQ) assessed non-responsive and structure-related parental feeding practices. Spearman's correlation established the association between parental feeding practices and child's FF and FN. Moderation analyses was conducted to explore the extent to which child's age moderates the association.Higher levels of child's FN was weakly to moderately associated with higher parental reports of reward for eating (RE) (r = .210, p < 0.001), persuasive feeding (PF) (r = .340, p < 0.001), overt restriction (OR) (r = .195, p < 0.001) and lower reports of structured meal settings (SMS) (r = -.085, p = 0.039) and family meals (FMS) (r = -.387, p < 0.001). Higher levels of child's FF had a slightly stronger association with the same parental feeding as FN, with additional associations with structured meal timings (SMT) (r = -.089, p = 0.031) and covert restriction (CR) (r = -.083, p = 0.045). Age moderated the association between both child's FF [b = .22, p < 0.001] and FN [b = .17, p = 0.002] and parental reports of PF, along with moderating the association between child's FF [b = .11, p = 0.04] and parental reports of SMT.Overall, child's FN and FF were both associated with higher levels of non-responsive feeding practices and lower reports of structure-related feeding practices, with child's FF associated with more parental feeding practices than FN. These findings suggest that it is important to address FN and FF as separate constructs, with more structure-related feeding practices inversely associated with higher levels of FF only. In addition, as children get older findings suggest that less parental feeding practices are utilised, however, higher levels of child's FF/FN are associated with similar levels of PF and SMT (FF only) regardless of age.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laís Amaral Mais ◽  
Sarah Warkentin ◽  
Juliana Bergamo Vega ◽  
Maria do Rosário Dias de Oliveira Latorre ◽  
Susan Carnell ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveThe present study aimed to identify food patterns among 2–9-year-olds and investigate sociodemographic, anthropometric and behavioural predictors of less healthy dietary patterns.DesignCross-sectional study. Parents of 2–9-year-olds completed an FFQ and factor analysis was applied to identify dietary patterns. Parents also completed questionnaires assessing sociodemographic, anthropometric and behavioural characteristics of parents and children, including parental feeding practices.SettingParticipants were recruited from private schools of Campinas and São Paulo, SP, Brazil, between April and June 2014.SubjectsParents of 2–9-year-olds (n 929).ResultsTwo dietary patterns emerged: ‘traditional food’ and ‘ultra-processed food’. Lower maternal education (OR=2·05, P=0·010) and higher maternal weight status (OR=1·43, P=0·044) were associated with a greater likelihood of the ultra-processed food pattern. Lower perceived parental responsibility for adequacy of food group intake (OR=2·41, P=0·020), and lower scores on the parental feeding practices of ‘Healthy Eating Guidance’ (OR=1·83, P<0·001) and ‘Monitoring’ (OR=2·52, P<0·001), were also associated with the presence of this pattern, as was higher child’s screen use during mealtimes (OR=1·61, P=0·004).ConclusionsThe present study is the first to evaluate associations between less healthy dietary patterns of Brazilian 2–9-year-olds and parental feeding practices. Our findings highlight sociodemographic, anthropometric and behavioural factors within families that could be used to target tailored policies to at-risk populations.


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