Poster #37 - Caregiver Collectivism, Feeding Strategies, and Perceptions of Children’s Health in a Diverse Sample

• In Event: Poster Session 03

Abstract

Cultural ideology influences caregivers’ parenting strategies and perceptions of their child’s overall development. Given that caregivers are gatekeepers for children’s eating behaviors, it is likely that a caregivers’ cultural ideology may be related to their feeding strategies and perception of child health. For example, collectivism is associated with an external agency and focus on community, meaning that caregivers with collectivist ideals may see their child’s health as more influenced by ecological systems outside the family relative to less collectivist caregivers. Understanding how cultural ideology interacts with caregiver feeding strategies and health perceptions may help inform more inclusive and efficacious family health interventions that improve child well-being. The present study assessed how collectivism is related to caregivers’ feeding strategies and perceptions of child health in a diverse sample of U.S. caregivers.

A balanced sample of Black (n = 64), White (n = 67), Asian (n = 47), and Hispanic/Latinx (n= 61) caregivers of 3-8-year-old children completed an online survey assessing: collectivism (Sividas et al., 2008; e.g., “It is important to maintain harmony within my group”), feeding strategies (Musher-Eizemna & Holub, 2007; e.g., “I tell my child that healthy food tastes good”), and child health concerns (Birch et al., 2001; e.g., “How concerned are you about your child becoming over weight”). A collectivism score was calculated with higher scores indicating higher endorsement of collectivist cultural ideology. The feeding strategies scores were averaged with higher scores indicated that caregivers more strongly prioritized feeding strategies related to maintaining a healthful diet. The health concern scores were also averaged, with higher scores indicating more concern about their child’s current and future health. We hypothesized that higher feeding strategy scores (H1), and higher levels of collectivism (H2), would be associated with lower caregiver concerns about their child’s health. We further hypothesized an interaction such that caregiver feeding strategy scores would best predict caregiver concerns about their child’s health when caregivers were low on collectivism (H3).

As hypothesized, feeding strategy scores negatively predicted caregivers’ concerns about their child’s health, but these main effects were qualified by a two-way interaction between feeding strategy scores and collectivism, β = .218, p = .002. The interaction was probed at low, medium, and high levels of collectivism, producing the plot in Figure 1. Follow-up analyses indicated that feeding strategy scores were negatively correlated with concerns about child health for caregivers with low levels of collectivism only, b = -.364. p = .003.

These findings demonstrate that cultural ideology is an important consideration when examining caregiver feeding strategies and concerns about child health. Caregivers with lower levels of collectivism may perceive their individual choices as more predictive of their child’s health relative to those who are more collectivist, resulting in an association between their feeding strategies and concerns about their child’s health. The present results may inform the development of culturally inclusive nutrition interventions that incorporate caregivers’ cultural beliefs about the role agency and community play in shaping child health.

Authors

• Deborah Zonenschein Kamliot, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Emily Slonecker, Cabrini University

• J. Zoe Klemfuss, University of California - Irvine