2-142 - Observations of Family Relationships and Children’s Healthful Eating

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The healthfulness of children’s food choices is an important precursor of obesogenic outcomes. Research consistently underscores the importance of the family for shaping children’s relationships with food. However, these studies often rely on parents’ reports, focus on cross-sectional associations, and do not explore the multidimensional and complex nature of the ways that families promote more or less healthful eating in children.

In this symposium four empirical papers examine observations of family processes. The first presents evidence that parents who place more value on healthful eating are observed to be warmer and set more limits for their children while grocery shopping; although both values and observed parenting style are related to the healthfulness of parent-child food choices, only parental values predict the healthfulness of children’s independent choices. The second expands our understanding of maternal restrictive feeding as multidimensional; evidence from this study indicates that mothers’ use of direct, indirect, positive, and negative restriction strategies vary both by child sex and by children’s obesogenic eating behavior. The third study builds on the second study by providing longitudinal data on how Latina mothers’ regulation of child eating is related to children’s self-regulation of food intake. Controlling maternal behavior predicted poor self-regulation of eating later on. Finally, the fourth focuses on unhealthy eating in early adolescence, and provides evidence that family insecurity mediates associations between family negativity observed during conflict and disordered eating symptoms. Together, these papers notably advance our understanding of how family relationships impact the healthfulness of child eating patterns

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chairs

• Rachel Lucas-Thompson, Colorado State University

• Melissa George, Colorado State University's Prevention Research Center

Individual Presentations

• I learned it from you, but how? Parenting style and parental healthy eating values in relation to healthfulness of food choices - Presenting Author: Rachel Lucas-Thompson, Colorado State University; Dan J. Graham, Colorado State University; Marisol Chacon, Colorado State University; Chelsea Kline, Colorado State University; Adina Dumitrache, Colorado State University; Charles Heidrick, Colorado State University; Andrew Ogle, Colorado State University

• Diverse approaches to maternal restrictive feeding: Associations with children’s weight and eating behavior - Presenting Author: Katherine W. Bauer, University of Michigan; Megan H. Pesch, University of Michigan; Alison Miller, University of Michigan; Katherine Rosenblum, Univeristy of Michigan; Danielle P Appugliese, Appugliese Professional Advisors; Julie C. Lumeng, University of Michigan

• Latina Mother’s Feeding Interactions and Preschool Children’s Eating in the Absence of Hunger: A Longitudinal Analysis - Presenting Author: Thomas Power, Washington State University; Lionor Galindo, Washington State University; Ashley Beck, Washington State University; Jennifer Fisher, Temple University; Teresia O'Connor, Baylor College of Medicine; Sheryl O Hughes, Baylor College of Medicine

• Quality of Family Conflict Interactions and Adolescent Disordered Eating: Family-wide Emotional Insecurity as a Mediating Process - Presenting Author: Melissa George, Colorado State University's Prevention Research Center; Kalsea J Koss, Princeton University; Rachel Lucas-Thompson, Colorado State University; Patrick T Davies, University of Rochester; E Mark Cummings, University of Notre Dame