Europe PMC Funders Group Author Manuscript Appetite. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 June 01. Published in final edited form as: Appetite. 2015 December ; 95: 466–474. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2015.08.008.
Europe PMC Funders Author Manuscripts
How do mothers manage their preschool children’s eating habits and does this change as children grow older? A longitudinal analysis Megan Jarman1,2, Jane Ogden3, Hazel Inskip1, Wendy Lawrence1,2, Janis Baird1, Cyrus Cooper1,2,4, Sian Robinson1, and Mary Barker1 1MRC
Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton UK
2NIHR
Nutrition Biomedical Research Centre, University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Southampton UK 3University 4NIHR
of Surrey, Department of Psychology, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH UK
Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford UK
Abstract The practices mothers adopt in relation to feeding their children have been identified as important predictors of children’s quality of diet. However, most studies of the impact of these practices on quality of children’s diets have been cross-sectional in design, limiting conclusions about change and causality. Previous research has called for qualitative exploration of the way these practices are used in a real-life setting. This study set out to address these gaps in knowledge.
Europe PMC Funders Author Manuscripts
At baseline, mothers recruited to a community-based intervention study and who had a preschool child, completed a questionnaire about their use of covert and overt control practices, child food neophobia and demographics. The quality of children’s diets was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire Both questionnaires were repeated with the mothers two years later. Complete data at both time points were available for 228 mother-child pairs. Four focus group discussions were conducted with 29 mothers of preschool children to explore their experiences of feeding young children. Mothers who increased their use of overt control had children whose level of food neophobia also increased (P=0.02). Mothers who used more covert control had children with better quality diets at both time points (P=
Europe PMC Funders Author Manuscripts
How do mothers manage their preschool children’s eating habits and does this change as children grow older? A longitudinal analysis Megan Jarman1,2, Jane Ogden3, Hazel Inskip1, Wendy Lawrence1,2, Janis Baird1, Cyrus Cooper1,2,4, Sian Robinson1, and Mary Barker1 1MRC
Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton UK
2NIHR
Nutrition Biomedical Research Centre, University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Southampton UK 3University 4NIHR
of Surrey, Department of Psychology, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH UK
Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford UK
Abstract The practices mothers adopt in relation to feeding their children have been identified as important predictors of children’s quality of diet. However, most studies of the impact of these practices on quality of children’s diets have been cross-sectional in design, limiting conclusions about change and causality. Previous research has called for qualitative exploration of the way these practices are used in a real-life setting. This study set out to address these gaps in knowledge.
Europe PMC Funders Author Manuscripts
At baseline, mothers recruited to a community-based intervention study and who had a preschool child, completed a questionnaire about their use of covert and overt control practices, child food neophobia and demographics. The quality of children’s diets was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire Both questionnaires were repeated with the mothers two years later. Complete data at both time points were available for 228 mother-child pairs. Four focus group discussions were conducted with 29 mothers of preschool children to explore their experiences of feeding young children. Mothers who increased their use of overt control had children whose level of food neophobia also increased (P=0.02). Mothers who used more covert control had children with better quality diets at both time points (P=
