The Relationship between Structure-Related Food Parenting Practices and Children's Heightened Levels of Self-Regulation in Eating.

Background: Food parenting practices influence children's eating behaviors and weight status. Food parenting practices also influence children's self-regulatory abilities around eating, which has important implications for children's eating behaviors. The purpose of the following study is to examine use of structure-related food parenting practices and the potential impact on children's ability to self-regulate energy intake.

Methods: Parents (n = 379) of preschool age children (M = 4.10 years, SD = 0.92) were mostly mothers (68.6%), Non-White (54.5%), and overweight/obese (50.1%). Hierarchical Multiple Regression was conducted to predict child self-regulation in eating from structure-related food parenting practices (structured meal setting, structured meal timing, family meal setting), while accounting for child weight status, parent age, gender, BMI, race, and yearly income.

Results: Hierarchical Multiple Regression results indicated that structure-related feeding practices (structured meal setting and family meal setting, but not structured meal timing) are associated with children's heightened levels of self-regulation in eating. Models examining the relationship within children who were normal weight and overweight/obese indicated the following: a relationship between structured meal setting and heightened self-regulation in eating for normal-weight children and a relationship between family meal setting and heightened self-regulation in eating for overweight/obese children.

Conclusions: Researchers should further investigate these potentially modifiable parent feeding behaviors as a protective parenting technique, which possibly contributes to a healthy weight development by enhancing self-regulation in eating.