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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Maternal and paternal feeding practices : links with young children’s eating behaviours and influencing factors : a systemic approach.

subject

description

Parents play a key role in the development of children’s eating preferences and behaviours. This doctoral project aimed to gain more insight into the feeding practices mothers and fathers use for pre-schoolers in France and Denmark. Four studies, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, were conducted to study the links between maternal and paternal feeding practices/styles and child eating behaviours, possible predictors of parental feeding and portioning practices, and gender differences in feeding practices and parental involvement in child feeding. Special attention was also paid to cultural influences and how changes in the context (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) can influence eating and feeding behaviours. The results, presented in six articles in this doctoral thesis, showed that maternal and paternal feeding practices/styles were significantly linked with child eating behaviours. Both in France and Denmark, fathers were found to use higher levels of coercive control practices than mothers. A systemic look at the results revealed that many child-related (e.g., appetite, food preferences and behaviours, developmental skills), parent-related (e.g., sociodemographic characteristics, self-efficacy/confidence), and external-related factors in their immediate and larger environment (e.g., food culture) influence parental feeding and portioning practices. These results provide valuable indications on the steps that still need to be taken to overcome certain methodological limitations, which issues need to be further explored taking into account parental and cultural diversity, and how mothers and fathers can be helped to create a positive and healthy eating environment for their child. Based on the results and insights obtained in this doctoral project, it is suggested that guidance for parents and structural changes in society (nudges, laws) could be of interest to facilitate this.