3-089 - Novel Approaches for Considering Caregiver Feeding and Influence on Children’s Developing Eating Behaviors

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Previous research consistently indicates caregivers play a key role in shaping children’s eating behaviors, especially during early to middle childhood. As childhood obesity remains high in the US, understanding the nuanced ways caregivers shape the development of healthy eating behaviors is of increasing importance. This symposium aims to move beyond previous considerations of caregiver feeding and present multiple new directions for research in this area, including methodological approaches, understudied caregiver samples, and different modes of caregiver influence.

The first study uses observational coding of videotaped mealtimes with families of preschool age children recruited from Head Start and WIC sites to explore a bidirectional interplay between parent and child behaviors during mealtime. The second study uses in-depth qualitative interviews for a novel examination of child care providers’ ideas about feeding young children, analyzed to explore differences in approaches to feeding based on type of care setting (center-based, family day care, and Head Start). The third study provides insight into the desires, beliefs, and practices regarding feeding for an understudied population in this literature, first generation Latina immigrant mothers residing in rural Midwestern communities. In particular, the authors identify the challenges and supports related to feeding young children in this population. The fourth study considers parental influence on children’s eating behavior through a novel mechanism of decisions about the child’s school lunch within a sample of elementary age children.

Together, these studies provide a more nuanced understanding of the role of caregivers in children’s developing eating behaviors during early to middle childhood.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chairs

• Carolyn Sutter, University of California, Davis

• Lenna Ontai, University of California, Davis

Individual Presentations

• Parents’ Feeding Styles and Their Behavior During Mealtime - Presenting Author: Lenna Ontai, University of California, Davis; Carolyn Sutter, University of California, Davis; Mical Shilts, California State University, Sacramento; Marilyn Townsend, University of California, Davis

• Approaches to Feeding Young Children Used by Center-Based Providers, Family Day Care Providers and Head Start Teachers - Presenting Author: Katherine Speirs, University of Arizona

• Feeding children: desires, beliefs and practices of Latina immigrant mothers - Presenting Author: Kimberly Greder, Iowa State University

• The Role of Parenting in Youths’ Autonomous Eating Behavior during School Lunchtime for Elementary Age Students - Presenting Author: Carolyn Sutter, University of California, Davis; Jennifer C Taylor, University of California, Davis; Adrienne Nishina, University of California, Davis; Lenna Ontai, University of California, Davis