Food parenting practices for 5 to 12 year old children: A concept map analysis of parenting and nutrition experts input

Authors: O'CONNOR, TERESIA - CHILDREN'S NUTRITION RESEARCH CENTER (CNRC); MASSE, LOUISE - UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA; TU, ANDREW - UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA; WATTS, ALLISON - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA; HUGHES, SHERYL - CHILDREN'S NUTRITION RESEARCH CENTER (CNRC); BEAUCHAMP, MARK - UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA; BARANOWSKI, TOM - CHILDREN'S NUTRITION RESEARCH CENTER (CNRC); PHAM, TRUC - CHILDREN'S NUTRITION RESEARCH CENTER (CNRC); BERGE, JERICA - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA; FIESE, BARBARA - UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS; GOLLEY, REBECCA - UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA; HINGLE, MELANIE - UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA; KREMERS, STEF - MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY; RHEE, KYUNG - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA; SKOUTERIS, HELEN - DEAKIN UNIVERSITY; VAUGHN, AMBER - UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

Submitted to: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/16/2017
Publication Date: 9/11/2017
Citation: O'Connor, T.M., Masse, L.C., Tu, A.W., Watts, A.W., Hughes, S.O., Beauchamp, M.R., Baranowski, T., Pham, T., Berge, J.M., Fiese, B., Golley, R., Hingle, M., Kremers, S.P., Rhee, K.E., Skouteris, H., Vaughn, A. 2017. Food parenting practices for 5 to 12 year old children: A concept map analysis of parenting and nutrition experts input. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 14:122. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-017-0572-1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-017-0572-1

Interpretive Summary: Parents are considered an important influence on their children's eating behaviors and food intake. While many studies have investigated food parenting practices, there is little agreement as to how parenting in regards to children's dietary intake should be conceptualized or measured, with over 70 food parenting practice instruments identified by our group in a previous systematic review. This makes it difficult to compare results across studies and ultimately to get a fuller understanding of how parents influence their children's eating behaviors and food intake. This study therefore engaged 25 experts from eight countries (Australia, Canada, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and US) to help develop a conceptual framework for food parenting practices in regards to 5-12 year old children. Experts were asked to sort 110 unique food parent practice concepts into categories to inform the development of a framework. They were provided a previously published food parenting content map to guide them, but were not required to use it. Multidimensional scaling analysis integrated all the experts' sorting patterns and a cluster analysis identified how the practices fit together into clusters. A subjective review with expert input of these categories resulted in two food parenting practice frameworks, a parsimonious solution with 7 constructs, and a comprehensive solution with 17 constructs. A majority of the experts preferred the comprehensive solution, but several wanted both to be presented. In the future, the frameworks will be tested with data from parents whose child is 5-12 years old to assess its structure and inform the development of a calibrated item bank for others to use.

Technical Abstract: Parents are an important influence on children's dietary intake and eating behaviors. However, the lack of a conceptual framework and inconsistent assessment of food parenting practices limits our understanding of which food parenting practices are most influential on children. The aim of this study was to develop a food parenting practice conceptual framework using systematic approaches of literature reviews and expert input. A previously completed systematic review of food parenting practice instruments and a qualitative study of parents informed the development of a food parenting practice item bank consisting of 3632 food parenting practice items. The original item bank was further reduced to 110 key food parenting concepts using binning and winnowing techniques. A panel of 32 experts in parenting and nutrition were invited to sort the food parenting practice concepts into categories that reflected their perceptions of a food parenting practice conceptual framework. Multi-dimensional scaling produced a point map of the sorted concepts and hierarchical cluster analysis identified potential solutions. Subjective modifications were used to identify two potential solutions, with additional feedback from the expert panel requested. The experts came from 8 countries and 25 participated in the sorting and 23 provided additional feedback. A parsimonious and a comprehensive concept map were developed based on the clustering of the food parenting practice constructs. The parsimonious concept map contained 7 constructs, while the comprehensive concept map contained 17 constructs and was informed by a previously published content map for food parenting practices. Most of the experts (52%) preferred the comprehensive concept map, while 35% preferred to present both solutions. The comprehensive food parenting practice conceptual map will provide the basis for developing a calibrated Item Response Modeling (IRM) item bank that can be used with computerized adaptive testing. Such an item bank will allow for more consistency in measuring food parenting practices across studies to better assess the impact of food parenting practices on child outcomes and the effect of interventions that target parents as agents of change.