Identifying Food Parenting Practices From Comprehensive Home Environment Survey.

OBJECTIVE: Conducting exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with the existing home environment assessment-the Comprehensive Home Environment Survey (CHES), to identify scales related to food parenting practices. METHODS: Parents of 3- to 5-year-old children (n = 172) completed the CHES surveys. After selected items from CHES were categorized into food parenting practice constructs, EFA was used to identify potential subconstructs. Internal consistency and Spearman correlation analysis were also conducted. RESULTS: The EFAs identified 4 factors within the structure, 4 within coercive control, and 2 within autonomy support. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The results provided preliminary evidence and support that the CHES can be used to measure food parenting practices. The study was limited to a small sample of non-Hispanic White and highly educated participants, less identified items within autonomy support, and lower internal consistency for several identified factors. Confirmatory factor analysis in a larger and more diverse sample is needed for future research.

Influence of Parenting Style on Body Mass Index, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Time.

The purpose of the current study was to determine the influence of parenting style on body mass index (BMI) percentile, physical activity (PA), and sedentary time (ST) in children. Accelerometers were used to assess PA and ST in 152 fifth-grade children. Parenting style was assessed by the child participants' responses to modified questions from the Parenting Style Inventory II and dichotomized as authoritative or non-authoritative. Multiple linear regression analyses were utilized to identify significant predictors of outcomes of interest. Parenting style did not predict ST or any intensity of PA; however, BMI percentile and gender were significant predictors of moderate-intensity PA, vigorous-intensity PA, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (P < .01). BMI percentile was predicted to be lower in females with authoritative mothers (P < .01). While authoritative and non-authoritative parenting style did not predict objectively measured PA or ST in early adolescents, authoritative parenting style did predict BMI percentile in female participants.