Parental feeding style changes the relationships between children's food preferences and food parenting practices: The case for comprehensive food parenting interventions by pediatric healthcare professionals

Purpose To determine if parental feeding styles (emotional environment of the meal) moderate the relationship between food parenting practices (goal-directed behaviors) and children's preferences for fruits, vegetables, or high fat/sugar foods. Design and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study recruited parents (n = 108) of preschool age children. The parents completed several questionnaires. Linear regressions were used to assess the relationship between food parenting practices and children's food preferences as moderated by feeding style, with the authoritative feeding style serving as the reference. Results Parental feeding styles were found to be moderators between several food parenting practices and child food preferences. When compared with parents with the authoritative feeding style (high demands, responds to child's needs), children like vegetables significantly less if indulgent (low demands, responds to child's needs) parents allow children to control their own eating, or authoritarian (high demands, does not respond to child's needs), or uninvolved (low demands, does not respond to child's needs) parents provide a healthy food environment. The authoritative style was not always preferential. For example, children of uninvolved parents who used food as a reward liked vegetables significantly more than children of parents who had the authoritative feeding style who also used food as a reward. In addition, children of authoritarian parents who modeled healthy eating liked foods high in fat and/or sugar significantly less than children of authoritative parents. Practice Implications: When discussing child diet quality with parents, pediatric nurses should educate parents on both food parenting practices and feeding style, or the meal's emotional climate, as children experience both of these during mealtime interactions. In addition, for educational efforts, it may be advantageous to tailor interventions based upon the parent's feeding style.