What parenting practices do US and Canadian parents use to encourage or discourage healthy eating among their 5-12 year-old children?

Authors: MASSE, LOUISE - University Of British Columbia; TU, ANDREW - Bc Coroners Service; WATTS, ALLISON - University Of Minnesota; HUGHES, SHERYL - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); O'CONNOR, TERESIA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Preventive Medicine Reports
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/20/2020
Publication Date: 10/28/2020
Citation: Masse, L.C., Tu, A.W., Watts, A., Hughes, S.O., O'Connor, T.M. 2020. What parenting practices do US and Canadian parents use to encourage or discourage healthy eating among their 5-12 year-old children? Preventive Medicine Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101234.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101234

Interpretive Summary: Parents are considered an important influence on their children's eating behaviors and food intake. However, it is not clear if the current available food parenting practice surveys are understood by parents or capture the full range of parenting practices used by parents to encourage or discourage their child's eating behaviors. To address this gap, this study explored what US and Canadian parents of 5-12-year-old children report doing to encourage or discourage healthy eating behaviors for their child. An online, short response questionnaire was sent to participants recruited by using an international research polling firm (YouGovPolimetric). Parents were asked two open-ended questions assessing strategies that encourage their child to eat healthy and two open-ended questions assessing strategies that discourage healthy eating. A total of 135 parents (39% fathers) provided a total of 2389 responses. Responses were coded based on a previously published framework developed by our group and collapsed into six broad dimensions of food parenting practices. A statistical analyses compared responses from mothers and fathers. Parents primarily mentioned strategies that promoted structure in the eating environment or were controlling. Fathers mentioned controlling practices more than mothers; and mothers mentioned autonomy promoting practices more than fathers. Findings from this study will help enhance a new assessment tool of food parenting practices. Differences in the practices emphasized by mothers and fathers highlights the need for tailoring intervention messages about the utility of various parenting practices by the sex of the parents.

Technical Abstract: This study explored the parenting practices that parents of 5-12 year-old children report using to encourage or discourage children's healthy eating and examined sex differences in parent's responses. A stratified sample of 135 parents in the US and Canada completed a semi-qualitative online survey (Jan-Feb 2014) (stratified by parents' sex, income, and ethnicity of each country). Parents provided short answers to questions regarding the strategies they or other parents used to encourage or discourage their children’s healthy eating (5-12 year-old). The 2389 parent responses were coded by two coders with discrepancies triangulated. Data was qualitatively reviewed and log-linear analysis assessed whether responses varied by types of encouragement (encourage, discourage), sex of parent (male, female), and six dimensions of parenting practices (autonomy promotion, structure of the food environment, behavioral and educational, control, responsiveness, and consistency of the food environment). Parenting practices that were controlling or promoted structure were predominantly mentioned as a way to regulate children's eating behavior. Strategies that support children's self-regulatory processes, such as autonomy promotion and responsiveness, were infrequently mentioned. Sex differences in parenting practices emerged. Mothers mentioned autonomy promoting practices more often than fathers did. Fathers mentioned controlling practices more often than mothers did as a practice that discouraged healthy eating among children. The findings highlighted that parents need to gain a greater understanding of the practices that nurture healthy eating in children, such as autonomy supportive and responsive parenting practices, to better support children as they grow.