Medium is the message: moderate parental control of feeding correlates with improved weight outcome in a pediatric obesity intervention.

Objective: Previous studies have suggested complex associations among variables related to parental control of feeding and child/adolescent obesity. The current study examined associations between parental food control variables and weight outcomes in the context of a behaviorally based family treatment program.

Methods: Parents of youths (n = 93) enrolled in a clinical trial comparing 2 weight management interventions completed the Child Feeding Questionnaire pre- and post-treatment, and at a 12-month follow-up.

Results: Latent growth curve modeling indicated that mean levels of restriction decreased over the course of treatment in the Positively Fit (PF) condition. Youths in the PF treatment condition whose parents increased their restriction of food experienced greater decreases in zBMI over treatment.

Conclusions: Results echo previous reports that high and low parental control over food intake are associated with higher zBMI. Moderate parental control can be associated with beneficial outcomes in youths enrolled in behavioral treatment programs for obesity.