Selection and use of vegetable parenting practices did not vary by parent feeding styles: Mixed methods investigation

Authors: BELTRAN, ALICIA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); DEMET, ROSEMARY - University Of Texas Health Science Center; HUGHES, SHERYL - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); WOOD, ALEXIS - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); Thompson, Deborah - Debbe; O'CONNOR, TERESIA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); BARANOWSKI, TOM - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Appetite
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/19/2021
Publication Date: 12/22/2021
Citation: Beltran, A., Demet, R., Hughes, S.O., Wood, A.C., Thompson, D.J., O'Connor, T.M., Baranowski, T. 2022. Selection and use of vegetable parenting practices did not vary by parent feeding styles: Mixed methods investigation. Appetite. 170. Article 105883. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105883.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105883

Interpretive Summary: How to get children to eat their vegetables has been an important research topic. Parents influence their child's vegetable intake through both their feeding style, i.e. the emotional tone they establish around feeding, and their vegetable parenting practices (VPPs), i.e. the specific behaviors they use to influence their child's vegetable intake. A recently proposed model of precision food parenting proposes that child healthy dietary intake could be optimized by the selection and implementation of effective food parenting practices. Intervention research has targeted VPPs in general without identifying which practices were selected, which were used, or why they were selected. The current study asked middle socioeconomic status parents of 3 to 5 year old children to select two VPPs, implement them for a week, and be qualitatively interviewed about their experience. Responsiveness VPPs were most commonly selected, primarily due to their perceived ease of implementation. Parents believed there would be long term positive outcomes, e.g. more vegetable intake from using the practices selected. Frequency of use depended in part on opportunity, e.g. food purchase parenting practices could only be employed during intermittent shopping events. Few differences were detected by parent feeding styles in the types of VPPs selected, frequency of use, or effectiveness.

Technical Abstract: Parents influence their child's vegetable intake through their feeding style, i.e. the emotional tone established around feeding, and vegetable parenting practices (VPPs), i.e. the specific behaviors employed to influence their child's vegetable intake. A model of precision food parenting proposes that child healthy dietary intake could be optimized by the selection and implementation of effective food parenting practices. Parents use and learn from these complex interactions with their child, which are reflective of feeding style. Intervention research has targeted VPPs in general without a delineation of which practices were selected, which were used, or why they were selected. It is not clear how these users were influenced by feeding style, nor what the parent learned from the interaction. The current study used mixed methods wherein middle socioeconomic status parents of 3–5 year old children were categorized within feeding style groups (n = 122), asked to select two VPPs, implemented them for a week (n = 63), and qualitatively interviewed about their experience. Responsiveness VPPs were most commonly selected, primarily due to their perceived ease of implementation. Parents believed there would be long term positive outcomes, e.g. more vegetable intake from using the practices selected. Frequency of use depended in part on opportunity, e.g. food purchase parenting practices could only be employed during intermittent shopping events. Few differences were detected by parent feeding styles in the types of VPPs selected, frequency of use, or effectiveness. Food parenting interventions can encourage selection of specific VPPs to employ and do not appear to have to tailor the types of VPPs offered to parent feeding style. Research is needed with larger, socioeconomically diverse samples to assess optimal categorization into feeding styles and confirm the present results.