Parenting style as a predictor of dietary score change in children from 4 to 14 years of age. Findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

The influence of parental rearing style on the incidence of panic disorder, major depressive disorder and the comorbidity among Chinese college students

BACKGROUND

Panic disorder (PD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and the comorbidity (PD&MDD) in college students have caused a heavy disease burden for individuals and families. However, little was known for the comorbidity, especially the impact of parental rearing style on the incidence of the PD&MDD comorbidity.

METHODS

A cohort study was conducted among 6652 Chinese college students. Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI-3.0) was used for disease diagnosis. The parental rearing styles were measured by the Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran (EMBU) scale and factor analysis was used to reduce the dimension of the EMBU scale. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to determine the relationships between parenting styles and disease incidence. SPSS version 26.0 was used for all statistical analyses.

RESULTS

The 1-year incidence of PD, MDD, and PD&MDD comorbidity was 0.27 %, 2.04 %, and 0.21 %, respectively. Emotional warmth mode (OR = 0.753, 95%CI: 0.631-0.899, P < 0.01) were only negatively correlated with major depressive disorder. However, punishment denial mode (OR = 1.857, 95%CI: 1.316-2.620, P < 0.01) and over-participation mode (OR = 1.862, 95%CI: 1.176-2.949, P < 0.01) were positively correlated with the comorbidity of panic disorder and major depressive disorder.

LIMITATIONS

The limited follow-up period was only 1 year in this study which had impacted the collection of new onset cases.

CONCLUSIONS

Parental rearing style has a long-term influence on the psychiatric status of college students. Parenting style interventions working as the second level of mental disorder prevention will play an important role in MDD, PD and comorbidity prevention.

The association between dietary trajectories across childhood and blood pressure in early adolescence: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

BACKGROUND

Cardio-metabolic risk factors, including hypertension, are increasingly appearing in childhood. The aims of this study were to examine the associations between dietary trajectories across childhood and subsequent blood pressure (BP) at age 10/11, and to further determine whether these associations were explained by BMI or fat mass.

METHODS

Data from 4360 participants from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children were analysed. Dietary scores were computed based on similarity of intake to the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Group-based trajectory modelling was used to identify distinct dietary trajectories based on participant's individual dietary scores at up to four timepoints between age 4 and 11. Linear regression models examined the associations between dietary trajectories and BP measured at age 10/11. Models were adjusted for relevant covariates, and BMI or fat mass.

RESULTS

Four dietary trajectories were identified: "never healthy" (4.3%); "moderately healthy" (23.1%); "becoming less healthy" (14.2%); and "always healthy" (58.4%). Children in the "always healthy" trajectory had a lower systolic (-2.19 mmHg; 95% CI -3.78, -0.59) and diastolic BP (-1.71; -2.95, -0.47), compared with children in the "never healthy" trajectory after covariate adjustment. These associations were attenuated after additional adjustment for BMI or fat mass, but remained significant for diastolic BP.

CONCLUSIONS

A dietary trajectory mostly aligned with the Australian Dietary Guidelines across childhood was associated with slightly lower BP at age 10/11, which was not fully explained by BMI or fat mass. These findings support the need to encourage and enable healthy dietary habits early in childhood to attenuate the increasing burden of cardio-metabolic disease.

Family Facilitators of, Barriers to and Strategies for Healthy Eating among Chinese Adolescents: Qualitative Interviews with Parent-Adolescent Dyads

Healthy eating is vital in preventing obesity and long-term non-communicable diseases. This study explores potential family facilitators of, barriers to and strategies for healthy eating among adolescents in Chinese families to guide the development of effective interventions in the future. Parent-adolescent dyads were purposively sampled by age, gender, fruit and vegetable intake and household income. Key family factors were identified by thematic analysis. Fourteen themes under five domains were identified: family health with (1) illness experienced in the family; parental knowledge of (2) dietary recommendations, (3) the preparation of healthy food and (4) healthy food choice; parental attitudes towards (5) the importance of healthy eating and (6) the priority of family health; socioeconomic factors of (7) time concerns and (8) cost concerns; and food parenting practices in (9) nutritional education, (10) role modeling, (11) food provision, (12) child involvement, (13) parental supervision and (14) the cultivation of food preference. Useful strategies included incorporating healthy ingredients in adolescents' favorite recipes and providing a variety of fruit and vegetables at home. There is a need to empower parents with practical nutrition knowledge, to be more authoritative in food parenting practices, to discuss healthy eating with children and to acquire practical skills related to time- and cost-saving healthy cooking.

Psychometric properties of the item-reduced version of the comprehensive general parenting questionnaire for caregivers of preschoolers in a Finnish context

Introduction

Many instruments for assessing general parenting have been reported as burdensome and are thus seldom used in studies exploring children’s energy balance-related behaviors or weight. This study evaluates the factorial structure of the item-reduced version of the Comprehensive General Parenting Questionnaire (CGPQ), which assesses five constructs of general parenting.

Methods

The study uses data from two cross-sectional studies: Study 1 in 2014 (n = 173) and Study 2 in 2015–16 (n = 805). Parents of children aged three to six answered the CGPQ; in Study 1 the 69-item version, and in Study 2 the 29-item version. The reduction was based on the results of the confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) in Study 1. In both datasets, internal consistency, as Cronbach’s alphas and intraclass correlations between the items of each construct, was tested. A combined assessment of the CFA and items response theory evaluated the construct validity and the item importance for the 29-item version, and a further the reduced 22-item version.

Results

In Study 1, the highest Cronbach’s alphas were shown for the five constructs in the 69-item version. A higher intraclass correlation was found between the constructs in the 69- and 29-item versions, than between the 69- and the 22-item version. However, a high concordance was found between the constructs in the 29- and 22-item versions in both Study 1 and in Study 2 (0.76–1.00). Testing the goodness-of-fit of the CFA models revealed that the 22-item model fulfilled all the criteria, showing that it had a better factorial structure than the 29-item model. Standard estimations ranged from 0.20 to 0.76 in the 22-item version.

Conclusion

The reduced 22- and 29-item versions of the 69-item CGPQ showed good model fit, the 22-item version the better of the two. These short versions can be used to assess general parenting without overburdening the respondents.

Healthcare Avoidance before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Australian Youth: A Longitudinal Study

Background: Access to healthcare for young people is essential to ensure they can build a foundation for a healthy life. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people avoided seeking healthcare, adversely affecting population health. We investigated the factors associated with the avoidance of healthcare for Australian young people when they reported that they needed healthcare. We were able to compare healthcare avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic with healthcare avoidance prior to COVID-19. Methods: We used two recent data collection waves from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC)—Wave 9C1 during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and Wave 8 data which were collected in 2018. The primary outcome of this study revealed the avoidance of healthcare among those who perceived the need for care. Bivariate analyses and multiple logistic regression models were employed to identify the factors associated with the avoidance of healthcare during the COVID-19 and pre-COVID-19 periods. Results: In the sample of 1110 young people, 39.6% avoided healthcare during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic even though they perceived that they had a health problem that required healthcare. This healthcare avoidance was similar to the healthcare avoidance in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (41.4%). The factors most strongly associated with healthcare avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic were female gender, an ongoing medical condition, and moderately high psychological distress. In comparison, prior to the pandemic, the factor associated with healthcare avoidance was only psychological distress. The most common reason for not seeking healthcare was thinking that the problem would spontaneously resolve itself (55.9% during COVID-19 vs. 35.7% pre-COVID-19 pandemic). Conclusions: A large proportion of youths avoided healthcare when they felt they needed to seek care, both during and before the COVID-19 pandemic.