ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the latent classes of parental feeding behaviors in preschool children, and to examine the relationship between potential types of parental feeding behaviors and parental depression status.Methods:From May to July 2021, parents of preschoolers from eight kindergartens in Shanghai were recruited and investigated.A paper-based questionnaire consisting of the Chinese preschooler’s caregivers’ feeding behavior scale (CPCFBS) and the center for epidemiological studies depression scale (CESD-10) was employed.Finally, a total of 1 006 valid questionnaires were retrieved.Mplus 8.0 and SPSS 26.0 were used for statistical analysis.The latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of parents based on their feeding practices.Multinomial Logistic regression was used to examine the relevant influencing factors.Results:The feeding behaviors of parental of preschool children could be divided into four potential categories: " high responsiveness and high non-responsiveness type" (24.55%), " low responsiveness and high non-responsiveness type" (27.44%), " high responsiveness and low non-responsiveness type" (28.33%) and " low responsiveness and low non-responsiveness type" (19.68%). The parents with depression status were less likely to be categorized as " high responsiveness and low non-responsiveness type" ( OR=0.386, 95% CI: 0.218-0.684). The parents with older children were more likely to be categorized as " low responsiveness and low non-responsiveness type" ( OR=1.318, 95% CI: 1.039-1.672). Conclusion:The feeding practices of parents of preschool children can be categorized into four latent classes.The parents with depression status are more likely to adopt non-responsive feeding practice than responsive feeding practice.Actively paying attention to and improving the depression status of parents may help the feeder to adopt scientific feeding behavior.