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Loth KA, Ji Z, Kohli N, Fisher JO, Fulkerson JA. Parents of preschoolers use multiple strategies to feed their children: Findings from an observational video pilot study. Appetite 2023; 187:106615. [PMID: 37236362 PMCID: PMC10358371 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2023.106615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2022] [Revised: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
The current study leveraged observational data collection methods to fill gaps in our understanding of parent approach to feeding as well as child responses to various parental approaches. Specifically, the study aimed to: 1) characterize the broad range of food parenting practices used by parents of preschoolers during shared mealtimes at home, including differences by child gender, and 2) describe child responses to specific parent feeding practices. Forty parent-child dyads participated by recording two in-home shared meals. Meals were coded using a behavioral coding scheme that coded the occurrence of 11 distinct food parenting practices (e.g. indirect and direct commands, praise, bribes) and eight child responses (e.g., eat, refuse, cry/whine) to food parenting practices. Results revealed that parents engaged in a broad range of food parenting practices at meals. On average, parents in our sample used 10.51 (SD 7.83; Range 0-30) total food parenting practices per mealtime with a mean use of 3.38 (SD 1.67; Range 0-8) unique food parenting practices per mealtime. Use of indirect and direct commands to eat were most common; direct and indirect commands were used by 97.5% (n = 39) and 87.5% (n = 35) of parents at meals, respectively. No statistically significant differences were observed by child gender. No one specific feeding practice consistently yielded compliance or refusal to eat from the child, instead child responses were often mixed (e.g., compliance followed by refusal and/or refusal followed by compliance). However, use of praise to prompt eating was the practice that most often resulted in child compliance; 80.8% of children complied following parent's use of praise as a prompt to eat. Findings deepen our understanding of the types and frequency of food parenting practices used by parents of preschoolers during meals eaten at home and illuminate child responses to specific food parenting practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- K A Loth
- Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, 717 Delaware St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55414, USA.
| | - Z Ji
- Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 420 Delaware St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - N Kohli
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, 56 E River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - J O Fisher
- Center for Obesity Research and Education, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Public Health, Temple University, 3223 N Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA
| | - J A Fulkerson
- School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, 308 SE Harvard Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
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Morris C, Conway AA, Goetz DB. A Review of Effective Strategies for Parent-Delivered Instruction. Behav Anal Pract 2021; 14:513-522. [PMID: 34150462 DOI: 10.1007/s40617-020-00525-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Parent involvement in treatment is an important component of effective behavior-analytic services. Whether parents are expected to act as the primary behavior change agent or support treatment in other ways, behavior analysts must provide them with the resources necessary to encourage lasting behavior change. A critical component of supporting lasting behavior change is the foundational skills related to instruction delivery. Without these skills, parents will not likely benefit from more advanced programs and interventions recommended by behavior analysts. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to describe the foundational skills necessary for parents to successfully establish an instructional environment for further program and intervention delivery. To aid practitioners, a parent-friendly handout is included and discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cody Morris
- Department of Psychology, Salve Regina University, 144 Metro Center Blvd., Warwick, RI 02886 USA
| | - Alissa A Conway
- A. J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA USA
| | - Dana B Goetz
- Department of Psychology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI USA
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Casetta L, Rizzi L, Passarelli M, Arcara G, Perrella R. Italian Validation of the Touch Avoidance Measure and the Touch Avoidance Questionnaire. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1673. [PMID: 32793052 PMCID: PMC7390897 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2020] [Accepted: 06/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Social touch is essential in relationships and well-being, but the unique personal experience of touch is not assessed and taken into account in health and social care services. The pleasantness of gentle stroking is influenced by gender, toucher genre, toucher familiarity, culture, and age. Moreover, pleasantness is influenced by touch avoidance, the attitude toward interpersonal touch. The aim of this article is to present the translation, adaptation, and validation in Italian of two scales to measure touch avoidance. For translation and validation, we selected the most used scale, the Touch Avoidance Measure (TAM) and a more recent scale, the Touch Avoidance Questionnaire (TAQ). Confirmatory factor analyses reported good model fit for the TAM [comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.947, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.940, root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.065] and excellent model fit for the TAQ (CFI = 0.954, TLI = 0.950, RMSEA = 0.058). Internal consistency was high for all subscales, except the TAQ "Stranger" subscale. One-month test-retest reliability ranged from 0.67 to 0.90 for each subscale. Lastly, convergent validity between the TAM and TAQ was also found to be high. We conclude that the TAM and TAQ can be used to assess touch avoidance with Italian samples. The instrument can be used to support healthcare professionals and to assess attitudes toward touch in individuals with interpersonal difficulties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Casetta
- Associazione Centro di Psicologia e Psicoterapia Funzionale, Istitituto S.I.F., Padua, Italy
| | - Luca Rizzi
- Associazione Centro di Psicologia e Psicoterapia Funzionale, Istitituto S.I.F., Padua, Italy
| | - Marcello Passarelli
- Institute of Educational Technology, National Research Council, Genoa, Italy
| | | | - Raffaella Perrella
- Department of Psychology, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli," Caserta, Italy
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Abstract
This study examined gender, age, and task differences in positive touch and physical proximity during mother-child and father-child conversations. Sixty-five Spanish mothers and fathers and their 4- (M = 53.50 months, SD = 3.54) and 6-year-old (M = 77.07 months, SD = 3.94) children participated in this study. Positive touch was examined during a play-related storytelling task and a reminiscence task (conversation about past emotions). Fathers touched their children positively more frequently during the play-related storytelling task than did mothers. Both mothers and fathers were in closer proximity to their 6-year-olds than their 4-year-olds. Mothers and fathers touched their children positively more frequently when reminiscing than when playing. Finally, 6-year-olds remained closer to their parents than did 4-year-olds. Implications of these findings for future research on children's socioemotional development are discussed.
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Feeding practices of low-income mothers: how do they compare to current recommendations? Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 2015; 12:34. [PMID: 25888909 PMCID: PMC4363190 DOI: 10.1186/s12966-015-0179-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2013] [Accepted: 01/30/2015] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Despite a growing consensus on the feeding practices associated with healthy eating patterns, few observational studies of maternal feeding practices with young children have been conducted, especially in low-income populations. The aim of this study was to provide such data on a low income sample to determine the degree to which observed maternal feeding practices compare with current recommendations. METHODS Eighty low-income mothers and their preschool children were videotaped at dinner in their homes. Mothers were chosen from a larger study to create a 2 X 2 X 2 design: maternal ethnicity (African American vs. Latina) by child gender by child weight status (healthy weight vs. overweight/obese). Observers coded videotapes for a range of maternal feeding strategies and other behaviors. RESULTS Many mothers spent considerable time encouraging eating--often in spite of the child's insistence that he or she was finished. Mothers talked little about food characteristics, rarely referred to feelings of hunger and fullness, and made more attempts to enforce table manners than to teach eating skills. Latina mothers showed higher levels of teaching eating skills and encouraging their children to eat; African American mothers showed higher levels of enforcing table manners and getting children to clear their plates. Mothers of boys used more unelaborated commands and less questions/suggestions than mothers of girls. Finally, compared to mothers of overweight/obese children, mothers of healthy weight children showed higher levels of encouraging eating and lower levels of discouraging eating. CONCLUSIONS Most of the mothers in this study did not engage in feeding practices that are consistent with current recommendations. They did this, despite the fact that they knew they were being observed. These results should be used to inform future research about the motivations behind mothers' feeding practices and the development of interventions by helping identify areas in greatest need of change.
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Hughes SO, Frankel LA, Beltran A, Hodges E, Hoerr S, Lumeng J, Tovar A, Kremers S. Food parenting measurement issues: working group consensus report. Child Obes 2013; 9 Suppl:S95-102. [PMID: 23944928 PMCID: PMC3746239 DOI: 10.1089/chi.2013.0032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Childhood obesity is a growing problem. As more researchers become involved in the study of parenting influences on childhood obesity, there appears to be a lack of agreement regarding the most important parenting constructs of interest, definitions of those constructs, and measurement of those constructs in a consistent manner across studies. This article aims to summarize findings from a working group that convened specifically to discuss measurement issues related to parental influences on childhood obesity. Six subgroups were formed to address key measurement issues. The conceptualization subgroup proposed to define and distinguish constructs of general parenting styles, feeding styles, and food parenting practices with the goal of understanding interrelating levels of parental influence on child eating behaviors. The observational subgroup identified the need to map constructs for use in coding direct observations and create observational measures that can capture the bidirectional effects of parent-child interactions. The self-regulation subgroup proposed an operational definition of child self-regulation of energy intake and suggested future measures of self-regulation across different stages of development. The translational/community involvement subgroup proposed the involvement of community in the development of surveys so that measures adequately reflect cultural understanding and practices of the community. The qualitative methods subgroup proposed qualitative methods as a way to better understand the breadth of food parenting practices and motivations for the use of such practices. The longitudinal subgroup stressed the importance of food parenting measures sensitive to change for use in longitudinal studies. In the creation of new measures, it is important to consider cultural sensitivity and context-specific food parenting domains. Moderating variables such as child temperament and child food preferences should be considered in models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheryl O. Hughes
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
| | - Leslie A. Frankel
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
| | - Alicia Beltran
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
| | - Eric Hodges
- School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
| | - Sharon Hoerr
- Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
| | - Julie Lumeng
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical School; Human Nutrition Program, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health; and Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
| | - Alison Tovar
- Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingstown, RI
| | - Stef Kremers
- Department of Health Promotion, NUTRIM School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands
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