Children's eating behavior and weight-related outcomes: A latent profile analysis of parenting style and coparenting.

Parenting style is associated with children's eating behavior, yet less is known about how parenting style and coparenting are both related to children's eating behavior (food approach behavior and palatable food intake) and weight-related outcomes (concern about child weight and perceived child weight). The aims of the current research were 1) to determine family profiles based on parenting style and coparenting, 2) to examine whether the family profiles were associated with parent (sex, BMI, age) and child (sex, age) characteristics, and 3) to examine whether the family profiles differed in children's outcomes. Parents (n = 185; Mage = 36.38 years, SD = 7.69) of 3- to 8-year-old children completed an online survey. Latent profile analysis revealed three family profiles: 1) Responsive and Cooperative, 2) Minimally Structured, and 3) Demanding and Competitive. The family profiles were not related to any parent or child characteristics. The Responsive and Cooperative family profile was associated with the lowest food approach behavior, palatable food intake, and weight-related outcomes, followed by the Minimally Structured family profile, and finally the Demanding and Competitive family profile with the highest scores. These findings suggest family dynamics play an important role in children's propensity to engage in food approach behavior and palatable food intake.

Parents' emotion dysregulation and children's emotional overeating: The role of emotion regulation feeding.

Parents' use of food to regulate children's emotions (i.e., emotion regulation feeding) has been associated with children's emotional overeating. However, less is known about how parents' emotion regulation feeding acts as a moderator between parents' emotion dysregulation and children's emotional overeating. A total of 216 parents (Mage = 35.84 years, SD = 6.11) of 3- to 5-year-old children were recruited to complete an online survey. Analyses revealed that emotion regulation feeding moderated the association between parents' emotion dysregulation and children's emotional overeating, such that parents with high emotion dysregulation and high emotion regulation feeding had children who engaged in more emotional overeating compared to parents with low emotion regulation feeding. This finding suggests that less adaptive feeding aggravates the association between parents' emotion dysregulation and children's emotional overeating.

Coparenting: Associations with parents' psychological distress and children's food approach behavior.

Parents' psychological distress has been associated with their children's obesogenic eating yet less is known about how coparenting moderates this relationship. The aim of the current research was 1) to examine how coparenting (general and feeding) moderates the associations between parents' psychological distress and children's food approach behavior after accounting for parents' coercive control food parenting and 2) to examine whether feeding coparenting interacted with psychological distress to predict children's food approach behavior above and beyond general coparenting. Parents (n = 216; Mage = 36.28 years, SD = 6.12) of 3- to 5- year old children completed an online survey. Analyses revealed that undermining coparenting and feeding coparenting (but not supportive coparenting) moderated the association between parents' psychological distress and children's food approach behavior. Additionally, analyses revealed that feeding coparenting interacted with psychological distress to predict children's food approach behavior above and beyond general coparenting. These findings suggest that less optimal coparenting relationships, particularly feeding coparenting, may exacerbate the influence of parents' psychological distress on obesogenic eating behaviors in children.

Children's media use and food approach behavior: Associations with temperament and food parenting.

Children's media use has been found to be associated with obesogenic eating and obesity risk. Children's temperament and food parenting have been found to be important factors associated with children's eating behavior. The current study examined whether children's temperament and food parenting moderated the associations between children's media use and children's food approach behaviors. Parents (n = 214) of children between 3- to 5- years old were recruited to complete an online survey. Findings showed that children's temperament (i.e., negative affectivity and effortful control) and food parenting (i.e., coercive control) moderated the relationship between children's media use and children's food approach behavior. The results suggest that children's temperament and food parenting play important roles in understanding the relationship among children's media use and children's eating behavior.

Mindful feeding: Associations with COVID-19 related parent stress and child eating behavior.

Parent perceived stress has been associated with child obesogenic eating, as parents who are stressed may be less responsive to their children during mealtimes (Gemmill et al., 2013). More recently, mindfulness-based interventions have successfully reduced people's stress levels. However, less is known regarding the role of mindfulness in the child feeding context. In this study, 249 parents of children between the ages of 3 and 12 completed a 20-minute online study to examine the associations among COVID-19 related parent stress (hereby referred to as parent stress), mindful feeding, and child obesogenic eating (i.e., food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, emotional overeating, and desire to drink). As hypothesized, we found that greater parent stress was associated with lower mindful feeding and greater child obesogenic eating. Furthermore, findings showed that parent stress interacted with mindful feeding to predict certain child obesogenic eating (i.e., food responsiveness, emotional overeating). Emotional overeating and food responsiveness were higher in children among parents with higher stress levels and lower levels of mindful feeding when compared to children of parents with greater mindful feeding. Taken together, these findings suggest the potential of mindful feeding in buffering the association between parent stress and child obesogenic eating.

The associations among psychological distress, stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic, and disinhibited eating of parents of three- to five-year-old children.

Individuals' psychological distress is associated with disinhibited eating (external and emotional eating). The aim of the current study was to examine the moderating associations of COVID-19-related stress on parents' psychological distress (anxiety, hostility, depression) and external and emotional eating. One hundred and sixty U.S. parents of three- to five-year-old children (Mage = 34.08, SD = 6.76; 89 females) completed an online survey. After accounting for participant characteristics (i.e., age, BMI, sex), regression analyses showed that COVID-19 stress moderated the effects of anxiety, hostility, and depression on external eating. Additionally, findings showed that COVID-19 stress moderated hostility (but not anxiety or depression) on emotional eating. These findings suggest that unexpected stressors from the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate disinhibited eating among those individuals who experience psychological distress. This presents support for providing interventions that focus on healthy coping strategies and family well-being, support groups, and community resources (e.g., financial assistance) to alleviate external pressures during unprecedented times.

Feeding coparenting: Associations with coercive control, structure-based, and autonomy-promoting food parenting.

Feeding coparenting refers to how two parents work together in the child feeding domain. However, little is known about feeding coparenting in relation to food parenting. The current study seeks to examine 1) whether parent demographics (i.e., sex, age, BMI, and employment status) and parent concern about child weight are related to feeding coparenting (i.e., Shared Views, Active Engagement, Solo Parenting) and 2) whether feeding coparenting is related to food parenting (i.e., coercive control feeding, structure-based feeding, autonomy-promoting feeding). Parents (n = 160) of 3- to 5-year old children completed an online survey. Parents' sex, employment status, and concern about child weight were related to feeding coparenting (Shared Views, Active Engagement, Solo Parenting). After controlling for those variables, feeding coparenting was related to structure-based (Shared Views and Active Engagement) and autonomy-promoting feeding (Active Engagement). However, none of the feeding coparenting variables were associated with coercive control feeding. These findings illuminate the importance of understanding how parents' feeding coparenting relationship plays a part in food parenting.

Observed behavioral indicators of child satiation at mealtime: Associations with child characteristics and parent-reported child eating behaviors.

The notion of promoting parents' recognition of child satiation to reduce overfeeding and overeating in children is prevalent. To do so, it is important to identify common behaviors that may indicate satiation and can be easily recognized by parents. Relatively little work has focused on identifying behaviors that may indicate child satiation as they occur during naturalistic mealtimes, which is an important context for parents to observe their children's eating behavior. Hence, the goal of the current study is to examine whether observed behavioral indicators of child satiation at mealtimes are associated with child characteristics (i.e., sex, age, and BMIz) and parent-reported child appetitive traits. We coded observed behaviors thought to indicate satiation, specifically mealtime disengagement and mealtime negativity, in a cohort of 240 families with children between 4- and 8-years old (53% boys). First, we documented the occurrence of child disengagement and negativity during naturalistic mealtimes. Second, we found that lower child BMIz and being a boy were associated with greater mealtime disengagement, but child age was not associated with mealtime disengagement. No associations were found between child characteristics and mealtime negativity. Third, we found that mealtime disengagement and mealtime negativity were associated with mother-reported satiety responsiveness on the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Taken together, our findings suggest observed mealtime disengagement and mealtime negativity behaviors could be helpful indicators of child satiation in a naturalistic mealtime context.

Associations between supportive and undermining coparenting and controlling feeding practices.

Parents play an important role in shaping child eating and weight outcomes through feeding practices. Controlling feeding practices are positively related to child obesogenic eating and obesity risk. Although many parents' characteristics have been examined in relation to controlling feeding practices, less is known about the role of coparenting. The current study seeks to examine whether coparenting (supportive versus undermining) predict controlling feeding practices (use of food for emotion regulation, food as a reward, pressure to eat, restriction for health, restriction for weight). A total of 160 parents (56% females) of preschool-aged children between 3- and 5-years old completed an online survey. After accounting for parent characteristics (i.e., sex, BMI, age), regression analyses showed that supportive coparenting was not predictive of controlling feeding practices. However, regression analyses showed that undermining coparenting predicted greater use of food for emotion regulation, food as a reward, and restriction for weight, but was not predictive of pressure to eat and restriction for health. Implications associated with these findings are discussed.

Mother-daughter negative body talk as a moderator between body surveillance and body shame in adolescent girls.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of mother-daughter communication about their bodies on adolescent girls' and mothers' body shame. METHODS: The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was utilized to estimate relationships between individuals' body surveillance and their own body shame (actor effect), individuals' body surveillance and the other member's body shame (partner effect), and negative body talk and both members' body shame (relationship effect) in a sample of 100 mother-daughter dyads. RESULTS: For both mothers and daughters, individuals who had higher body surveillance reported higher body shame. Negative body talk emerged as a significant moderator: girls with higher body surveillance experienced greater body shame when they engaged in more negative body talk with their mothers. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight the need for clinicians to address mothers' own surveillance and body shame, as well as negative body talk between mothers and daughters, in interventions that seek to reduce the impact of objectification on body shame in adolescents. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.

Anti-fat attitudes and dietary restraint within mother-daughter dyads: an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) analysis.

PURPOSE: This study examined the association between anti-fat attitudes (fear of fat, dislike of fat, willpower) and dietary restraint within the mother-daughter relationship. METHODS: Mother-adolescent daughter dyads (Npairs = 100) were recruited from a Midwestern community to participate in a study together. They completed self-report measures of anti-fat attitudes and eating behavior. Data were analyzed with an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). RESULTS: Significant actor effects for mothers include fear of fat (b = 0.270, B = 0.319, p < 0.05) and willpower (b = 0.228, B = 0.280, p < 0.05) predicting her own dietary restraint. For daughters, fear of fat (b = 0.554, B = 0.612, p < 0.05) and dislike (b = 0.202, B = 0.214, p < 0.05) predict her own dietary restraint. Regarding partner effects, mothers' fear of fat was related to daughters' dietary restraint (b = 0.126, B = 0.138, p < 0.05), and daughters' dislike was related to mothers' restraint (b = 0.257, B = 0.294, p < 0.05). Regarding dyad-level interaction effects, mother and daughter fear of fat interacted to predict daughter dietary restraint (b = 0.184, B = 0.201, p < 0.05), such that when both mother and daughter fear of fat is high, daughters appear to engage in more dietary restraint. CONCLUSIONS: Given the role of mothers' fear of fat in daughter eating behavior, parent-focused or parent-involved interventions may improve family culture around weight and eating, contributing to better adolescent outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: V, cross-sectional descriptive study.

Coparenting in the feeding context: perspectives of fathers and mothers of preschoolers.

PURPOSE: This study examined how fathers and mothers coparent around child feeding. METHODS: Father-mother pairs (N = 30) of preschool-aged children (M child age = 4.1 years old) participated in joint or group interview sessions. RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: (1) couples' division of labor regarding feeding tasks seemed to align with stereotypical gender roles; (2) couples noted that they attempted healthier family eating habits in comparison to families of origin and recognized the influence of extended family on their attempts at healthier feeding; (3) couples agreed on the importance of family mealtime, routines, and healthy meals, yet disagreed on strategies to limit unhealthy foods and achieve harmonious family meals. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified processes of coparenting and child feeding areas that were particularly challenging to manage among parents, which could be important targets for childhood obesity interventions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: V, descriptive study.

Development and preliminary validation of a feeding coparenting scale (FCS).

Evidence is growing that fathers, along with mothers, play an important role in children's eating and obesity risk. Qualitative work with a small sample found that the roles of fathers and mothers are not mutually exclusive in shaping their child's eating behaviors, rather fathers and mothers may relate to one another in their roles as parents in food parenting (i.e., feeding coparenting). There is currently no self-reported measure of how fathers and mothers coparent around child feeding. However, it would be useful in order to be able to assess this construct more broadly. Hence, based on prior qualitative work and findings related to the roles of fathers and mothers in food parenting, we developed a feeding coparenting scale (FCS). Parent responses on the FCS and measures of related constructs (i.e., relationship satisfaction, traditional gender-role attitudes, general coparenting, and perceived involvement in child feeding tasks) that were hypothesized to relate to feeding coparenting were assessed among 307 parents (n = 178 females) of preschool-aged children through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in order to examine the validity and reliability of the FCS. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the FCS. Three factors emerged: 1) shared positive views and values in child feeding, 2) active engagement in child feeding, and 3) solo parenting in child feeding. A total feeding coparenting score was also calculated. Support for construct validity of the measure with constructs hypothesized to be associated with FCS (e.g., relationship satisfaction) was observed. The internal consistency of the FCS total and subscales was adequate for whole sample, fathers, and mothers. Results suggest that the FCS may be a useful tool for assessing how mothers and fathers work together with each other in the child feeding domain.

Fear of fat and restrained eating: negative body talk between female friends as a moderator.

PURPOSE: This study examined whether engagement in negative body talk would moderate the association between fear of fat and restrained eating among female friend dyads. METHODS: Female friends (Npairs = 130) were recruited from a Midwestern university in the United States. The dyadic data were examined with an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). RESULTS: Results showed that women's fear of fat was significantly related to their own restrained eating behaviors. In contrast, women's fear of fat was not significantly related to their friends' restrained eating behaviors. Negative body talk was significantly related to restrained eating, as reported by both friends. The interaction between negative body talk and women's own fear of fat was found to be significant. Although women with less fear of fat showed less restrained eating, engaging in more negative body talk with a friend increased their engagement in restrained eating. Women with more fear of fat engaged in more restrained eating, regardless of their engagement in negative body talk. CONCLUSION: Given the detrimental role of body talk between fear of fat and restrained eating, interventions may target reducing body talk among young women. NO LEVEL OF EVIDENCE FOR: Basic science, Animal study, Cadaver study, and Experimental study articles.

Interactive role of weight status and fat talk on body dissatisfaction: an observation of women friends.

PURPOSE: The current study examined the interactive role of weight status and fat talk on body dissatisfaction among women friends. METHOD: Sixty pairs of women friends completed a measure of body dissatisfaction and engaged in an observed fat talk interaction with their friend. RESULTS: Women's weight status was related to their own, but not their friend's, body dissatisfaction. Observed fat talk was significantly related to individuals' own and their friend's body dissatisfaction. A significant interaction effect showed that the association between fat talk and body dissatisfaction was minimal for women with higher weight status. In contrast, fat talk was associated with more body dissatisfaction for women with lower weight status. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest the importance of examining the conjoint effect of personal (e.g., weight status) and contextual (e.g., fat talk) factors on body image issues. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: V, cross-sectional descriptive study.

Longitudinal associations between eating and drinking engagement during mealtime and eating in the absence of hunger in low income toddlers.

To develop effective obesity-related interventions during early life, it is important to identify predictors of eating in the absence of hunger during toddlerhood. Hence, this study examined longitudinal associations between child eating and drinking engagement at 27 months of age and child eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) at 33 months of age (N = 91 children; 57.1% boys). At 27 months of age, we coded child eating and drinking engagement during a videotaped naturalistic lunch meal at home. We also obtained mothers' reports of their child's food responsiveness (FR), satiety responsiveness (SR), and desire to drink (DD) using the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ). Children participated in a standard EAH protocol at 27 and 33 months of age where they were presented with palatable foods and the amount of food eaten was assessed (calculated as total kilocalories consumed). Correlational analyses showed that EAH at 27 months of age was positively related to EAH at 33 months of age and that neither mother-reported child FR or SR were associated with child eating engagement. Mother-reported child DD was associated with child drinking engagement. To predict EAH at 33 months, a regression analysis was conducted in which EAH at 27 months, mother-reported and observed child eating and drinking engagement at 27 months were entered as predictors, controlling for child demographics (i.e., age, sex, race/ethnicity and weight-for-length z-score (WLZ). Findings were that children who were observed to engage in more drinking at 27 months of age consumed more energy (measured as kcal) in the EAH at 33 months of age. Implications for understanding eating, and drinking, behaviors in toddlerhood are discussed.

Associations Between Cool and Hot Executive Functions and Children's Eating Behavior.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Studies on obesogenic eating behaviors in young children have mainly focused on the roles of family environment and parental behaviors. However, intrapersonal characteristics, particularly executive functions, have recently gained more attention in the literature. Therefore, herein we review work on children's executive functions (EFs), particularly the roles of cold and hot executive functions on children's obesogenic eating behaviors. RECENT FINDINGS: Most work examining the associations between EF and obesogenic eating among children has focused on the cool EF, particularly inhibitory control/impulsivity. Findings have consistently showed that deficits in inhibitory control/impulsivity are associated with overeating and food responsiveness. The roles of the other two cool EFs (attention control/shifting and working memory) and hot EF (delay of gratification and affective decision-making) in contributing to child obesogenic eating are less clear. For instance, the association between children's performance on delay of gratification tasks and obesogenic eating varies depending on whether food or non-food rewards were used; children with poorer delay of gratification in non-food tasks had more obesogenic eating, although children with poorer delay of gratification in food tasks had less obesogenic eating. Deficits in inhibitory control/impulsivity are associated with more obesogenic eating, suggesting that improving children's inhibition may reduce overeating and childhood obesity. The roles of other cool and hot components of EFs in contributing to obesogenic eating require further study.

The effects of happiness and sadness on Children's snack consumption.

Children appear to engage in emotional eating (i.e., eating in response to negative and positive emotions), but existing research has predominantly relied on parent-report and child-report, which may not necessarily reflect children's actual emotional eating behaviors. This study examined the effects of happiness and sadness on children's observed snack consumption and examined whether child characteristics (i.e., weight, gender, and age) interact with mood to predict snack consumption. To elicit mood, children (N = 91; Mages = 6.8 years; 48 boys) were randomly assigned to one of the three mood induction conditions (happy, sad, or neutral); children's snack consumption was observed and measured after mood induction. Findings showed that children in the sad condition consumed more energy from chocolate, followed by children in the happy condition, and then the neutral condition. However, the reverse pattern was observed for goldfish crackers: children in the neutral condition consumed more energy from this savory snack than children in the happy condition, followed by children in sad condition. Child weight status and gender did not interact with mood to predict snack consumption. Child age did interact with mood: older children consumed more chocolates in the sad condition compared to younger children. Child age was not related to snack consumption in the happy and neutral conditions. This study suggests that emotional eating in response to positive and negative emotions is evident during early childhood, but that this is behavior is developing during this period.

The role of fat talk in eating pathology and depressive symptoms among mother-daughter dyads.

The present study investigated how eating pathology and depressive symptoms were related to the dyadic dynamics of fat talk in mother-daughter relationships during adolescence. The current sample included 100 mother-daughter dyads who completed a survey on their fat talk disclosure, eating pathology, and depressive symptoms. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was utilized for the dyadic data. Adolescent girls' and mothers' engagement in fat talk was related to their own eating pathology. Daughters, but not mothers, who engaged in more fat talk reported more depressive symptoms. When mothers and daughters both had high levels of fat talk, it was associated with a higher risk of daughters' eating pathology. Adolescent girls who engaged in fat talk reported higher depressive symptoms when their mothers did not reciprocate with more fat talk. This study highlights the importance of an interpersonal approach to fat talk research and clinical interventions addressing adolescents' eating disorders and depression.

Interdependence of attachment styles and relationship quality in parent-adolescent dyads.

The current study examined how attachment styles of parents and adolescents may jointly influence the quality of their relationship. Parent-adolescent (Ndyads = 77) pairs were recruited from a Midwestern town in the United States. The mean of adolescents' age was 16.25. Both members reported their attachment styles, relationship closeness, and relationship discord. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) showed that both members' attachment avoidance was associated with self-report lower levels of closeness. Parents' attachment anxiety was related to relationship discord. Parents with higher avoidant attachment reported lower closeness when adolescents were higher in avoidant attachment. Higher parents' anxious attachment was related to higher relationship closeness when adolescents were higher on anxious attachment. Such an association was negative when adolescents had lower anxious attachment. Higher parents' anxious attachment was related to greater discord when adolescents were lower on anxiety attachment. This study reveals the complex dyadic dynamics of relationship quality in parent-adolescent pairs.