Parental stress, food parenting practices and child snack intake during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Appetite
; 161: 105119, 2021 06 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1163355
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions to the lives of families. This study aimed to investigate the impact of pandemic-associated stress on food parenting practices including interactions surrounding snacks, and child diet.METHODS:
Parents (N = 318) of 2-12-year old children completed a cross-sectional online survey assessing current COVID-19-specific stress, pre-COVID-19 stress, financial stress (e.g. food insecurity), food parenting practices, and child snack intake frequency. Structural Equation Modeling was used to model simultaneous paths of relationships and test direct and indirect effects.RESULTS:
Stress, including financial hardship, was higher compared with before the crisis. The majority of children had regular mealtimes and irregular snack times. Higher COVID-19-specific stress was associated with more non-nutritive use of food and snacks (e.g. emotional and instrumental feeding), but also more structure and positive interactions (e.g. eating with or engaging with child around mealtimes). Higher COVID-19-specific stress was also associated with greater child intake frequency of sweet and savory snacks, with some evidence for mediation by snack parenting practices.CONCLUSION:
Our findings indicate that stress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may be linked to child snack intake with potential impacts on child obesity risk, and suggest several modifiable points of intervention within the family context.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Parents
/
Stress, Psychological
/
Parenting
/
Feeding Behavior
/
Pandemics
/
Snacks
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Appetite
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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