3-059 - Understanding Feeding in Minority Populations

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Caregivers play an essential role in shaping children’s eating through their feeding practices and beliefs. The aim of the present symposium is to explore various aspects of feeding during early and middle childhood associated with caregiver characteristics among ethnic and/or socioeconomic minority families. The first paper illustrates how maternal early-life experiences of food insecurity and material deprivation interact with acculturation to mainstream U.S. culture to predict mothers’ food parenting and perceived responsibility in child feeding among middle-class Chinese and Korean first generation immigrant mothers. To further investigate the role of acculturation in feeding, the second paper compares food parenting practices and feeding styles of low-income immigrant and non-immigrant Hispanic families and examines associations between acculturation to U.S. culture and food parenting practices and feeding styles among first generation immigrant Hispanic families. Utilizing semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, the third paper examines whether maternal internal working models of the child are associated with domain specific feeding and discipline practices in a sample of low-income families. Our discussant, an expert in child obesity research, will comment on the specific contributions of the three presentations and discuss the importance of developmental perspectives in informing childhood obesity research. Findings from these presentations will allow us to examine how different aspects of feeding are associated with caregiver characteristics in ethnic and/or socioeconomic minority families, and to highlight the significant role such family factors may play in child feeding and obesity.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• Christy YuetYu Leung, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Discussant

• Barbara H Fiese, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Individual Presentations

• Asian Immigrants Parents’ Early-Life Deprivation Predicts Their Current Food Parenting Beliefs and Child Diet - Presenting Author: Nan Zhou, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Charissa Siew Lyng Cheah, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Merve Balkaya, Univ of Maryland, Baltimore County

• Obesity Risk in Children: The Role of Acculturation in the Feeding Patterns of Low-Income Hispanic Families - Presenting Author: Sheryl O. Hughes, Baylor College of Medicine; Thomas G Power, Washington State University; Teresia O'Connor, Baylor College of Medicine; Jennifer O Fisher, Temple University

• Maternal Representations of the Child, Feeding Practices, Discipline and Depression Symptoms among Low-Income Mothers - Presenting Author: Christy YuetYu Leung, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Katherine L Rosenblum, Univ of Michigan; Alison Leslie Miller, University of Michigan School of Public Health; Niko Kaciroti, University of Michigan; Yu Pu Chen, University of Michigan; Julie Lumeng, The University of Michigan, Department of Pediatrics