Associations between General Parenting Styles and Specific Food-Related Parenting Practices and Children's Food Consumption

Abstract

Purpose. Explore the impact of general parenting style and specific food-related parenting practices on children's dietary habits. Design. Cross-sectional study of sixth graders and their parents. Setting. Data were gathered (in 2003) in 69 of 100 randomly selected elementary schools in Belgium. Subjects. All sixth graders (N = 1957) were invited to participate; 82.4% of their parents gave consent and completed questionnaires, resulting in 1614 parent-child pairs. Measures. Children's consumption of breakfast, fruit, vegetables, soft drinks, and sweets was assessed by self-administered food frequency questionnaires. Parents completed questionnaires on sociodemographic characteristics, general parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative, indulgent, or neglecting) and specific food-related parenting practices (pressure, reward, encouragement through negotiation, catering on children's demands, permissiveness, avoiding negative modeling, and praise). Analysis. Logistic regression analyses were performed, with general parenting style and specific food-related parenting practices as predictors and dietary habits as dependent variables, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and children's weight status. Results. General parenting style did not show any significant impact on dietary habits. In contrast, the food-related parenting practice “encouragement through negotiation” showed a significant positive impact, whereas “pressure,” “catering on demand,” and “permissiveness” were practices with an unhealthy impact. Conclusion. Nutrition education programs that guide parents in firm but not coercive food parenting skills are likely to have a positive impact upon children's dietary habits.