Biopsychosocial pathways model of early childhood appetite self-regulation: Temperament as a key to modulation of interactions among systems.

The widespread discrimination against individuals with obesity often stems from a simplistic perception of obesity as a mere consequence of personal choices of overeating and insufficient physical activity. This reductionist perception fails to acknowledge the complexity of the epidemic of obesity, which extends beyond diet and exercise decisions. The concept of appetite self-regulation (ASR) has been explored as a crucial element in identifying obesogenic behavioral approaches to food.

Food Insecurity and Children's Problem Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Parental Relationship Quality and Parenting Stress.

Objective: Food insecurity, identified as a critical stressor for many families, can directly and indirectly influence children's development through interparental relationships and parenting. This study examines how food insecurity relates to children's problem behaviors and the mediating roles of interparental relationship quality and parenting stress. It also investigates the association between parents' perception of relationship quality and both their own and their partner's parenting stress.

Temperament and emotional overeating: the mediating role of caregiver response to children's negative emotions.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the mediating effects of caregiver responses to a child's negative emotions on the associations between infant temperament and emotional overeating in preschool children.

Method: A sample of 358 children and their caregivers enrolled in the STRONG Kids 2 (SK2) birth cohort study ( = 468) provided data for this analysis. Caregivers completed questionnaires assessing child temperament at 3 months, caregiver response to negative emotions at 18 months, and child emotional overeating at 36 months.

Protective role of family mealtime frequency against disordered eating behaviors: Racial and ethnic differences.

Family mealtimes have been recognized for their positive effect on child and adolescent health outcomes. Frequent family meals have been shown to have protective effects in reducing disordered eating behaviors, but the variability of these effects across different racial and ethnic backgrounds has been less explored. To address the gap, the current study utilizes a sample of 33,417 families with children (ages 6-17) in the United States who participated in the 2022 National Surveys of Children's Health (NSCH).

Association of parents' work-related stress and children's socioemotional competency: Indirect effects of family mealtimes.

Family mealtimes play an important role in promoting the physical and psychological well-being of children. However, parents' work-related stress may impact their ability to participate in frequent family mealtimes. In dual-earner families, gendered norms may also influence parents' shared responsibility to participate in mealtimes with their children.

The effect of adverse childhood experiences on family mealtime frequency: Examining racial and ethnic differences.

Eating meals as a family is associated with multiple positive nutritional and emotional outcomes for parents and children. Although the benefits of mealtimes extend to all families, families of color and those in poverty face disproportional barriers to eating frequent meals together. No previous study has properly attended to the heterogeneity of racial and ethnic groups in the United States when assessing mealtime barriers.

Infant temperament and mealtime distractions as predictors of preschool Children's bite speed during family mealtime.

Eating behaviors are shaped at an early age, persist into adulthood, and are implicated in the development of physical health outcomes, including obesity. Faster bite speed has been identified as an obesogenic eating behavior, prompting researchers to examine child and family factors associated with children's variability in bite speed. Child temperament, involving phenotypes of reactivity and regulation, and distractions in family food contexts are fruitful areas of investigation, but few studies have examined the interplay among these factors and their associations with bite speed.

Influences of Child Temperament and Household Chaos on Preschoolers' Emotional Eating.

Emotional eating has been linked to child temperament and family environment factors, such as household chaos. However, few studies have examined how child and home characteristics independently and together influence children's overeating and undereating in response to negative emotions. The current study examined associations among child temperament, household chaos, and emotional eating in children 18-24 months of age, and interaction effects were also tested.