Parental Feeding Practices Predict Authoritative, Authoritarian, and Permissive Parenting Styles
Accepted 29 January 2008.
Abstract
Background
Our goal was to identify how parental feeding practices from the nutrition literature link to general parenting styles from the child development literature to understand how to target parenting practices to increase effectiveness of interventions. Stand-alone parental feeding practices could be targeted independently. However, parental feeding practices linked to parenting styles require interventions treating underlying family dynamics as a whole.
Objective
To predict parenting styles from feeding practices and to test three hypotheses: restriction and pressure to eat are positively related whereas responsibility, monitoring, modeling, and encouraging are negatively related to an authoritarian parenting style; responsibility, monitoring, modeling, and encouraging are positively related whereas restriction and pressure to eat are negatively related to an authoritative parenting style; a permissive parenting style is negatively linked with all six feeding practices.
Design
Baseline data of a randomized-controlled intervention study.
Subjects/setting
Two hundred thirty-nine parents (93.5% mothers) of first-grade children (134 boys, 105 girls) enrolled in rural public schools.
Measures
Parental responses to encouraging and modeling questionnaires and the Child Feeding Questionnaire, as well as parenting styles measured by the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire.
Statistical analyses
Correlation and regression analyses.
Results
Feeding practices explained 21%, 15%, and 8% of the variance in authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting, respectively. Restriction, pressure to eat, and monitoring (negative) significantly predicted an authoritarian style (Hypothesis 1); responsibility, restriction (negative), monitoring, and modeling predicted an authoritative style (Hypothesis 2); and modeling (negative) and restriction significantly predicted a permissive style (Hypothesis 3).
Conclusions
Parental feeding practices with young children predict general parenting styles. Interventions that fail to address underlying parenting styles are not likely to be successful.
Address correspondence to: Laura Hubbs-Tait, PhD, Department of Human Development and Family Science, 233 HES, Stillwater, OK 74078-6122.
ABSTRACT