"Sit Down and Eat": Daily Associations Between Preschoolers' Physical Activity at Dinner and Parents' Feeding Coparenting and Control

Although it is developmentally appropriate for preschoolers to be highly active, this physical activity level can be difficult for parents to manage at mealtime when children are asked to sit and focus on eating. We examined how children's physical activity levels across the week related to parents' feeding coparenting efforts and how parent feeding pressure and prompts to change the child's activity mediated these associations. From a sample of 100 families with a preschool-age child (3-5 years, 49% female, 59% White, 12% Black, 10% Hispanic, 26% low-income), home dinners with mothers and fathers present were recorded in 65 families for seven consecutive days (455 total meals observed). Coders rated meals for children's activity level and parents' prompts for activity change, pressuring feeding behaviors, and feeding coparenting support, undermining, and balance. Multilevel structural equation models tested direct and indirect associations at within-person and between-person levels. On days children were more active than usual, parents engaged in more supportive feeding coparenting and used more prompts for children's activity change. Fathers' increased prompts for activity change explained associations between child activity level and supportive feeding coparenting. Although fathers' feeding pressure related to more supportive and balanced feeding coparenting, it was not predicted by child activity level and, thus, did not mediate associations between child activity and feeding coparenting. At the between-person level, children who were more physically active had parents who engaged in more undermining feeding coparenting. Results are discussed in terms of the consistency of children's physical activity and fathers' feeding engagement.