Arguments at mealtime and child energy intake.

Objective: To examine how arguments at mealtimes relate to children's daily energy intake.

Design: A cross-sectional study using data obtained through the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development 1998-2010 (QLSCD), a representative sample of children born in 1998, in the province of Québec, Canada.

Setting: Face-to-face interviews, questionnaires, and 24-hour dietary recall interviews addressed to children's parents.

Participants: One thousand five hundred forty-nine 4-year-old children who participated in a nutrition substudy.

Main Outcome Measure: Children's energy intakes were measured through a 24-hour dietary recall interview administered to parents by trained nutritionists, in the children's homes.

Analysis: The main associations were examined through chi-square tests of independence and through multivariate logistic regression analyses.

Results: The adjusted odds for consuming a high daily energy intake was 2.5 (95% confidence interval: 1.3-4.9) in children who were never exposed to arguments (between parents and children) at mealtimes, in comparison to children who were often or always exposed to arguments.

Conclusions And Implications: Mealtimes that are free of arguments, specifically between parents and children, appear to associate with high daily energy intakes in children, even after controlling for other factors, including a child's level of physical activity, eating in front of the television, mother's educational level, and number of overweight parents, among others.