Associations between Parent and Child Latent Eating Profiles and the Role of Parental Feeding Practices

Abigail Pickard, Claire Farrow, Emma Haycraft, Moritz Herle, Katie Edwards, Clare Llewellyn, Helen Croker, Jacqueline Blissett

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Previous research employing the person-centred approach of Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) with parent-reported data of their child’s eating behaviour identified four distinct eating profiles in 3-6-year-old children: typical, avid, happy, and avoidant eating (Pickard et al., 2023). In this follow-up study, the same parents were asked to self-report their own eating behaviour (N=785) and LPA was conducted to determine the latent eating profiles of the parents/caregivers. The LPA showed that a four-profile solution best represented the sample of parents, termed: typical eating (n = 325, 41.4%), avid eating (n = 293, 37.3%), emotional eating (n = 123, 15.7%) and avoidant eating (n = 44, 5.6%). Multiple mediation analysis was then conducted to examine both the direct associations between parents’ eating profiles and the child’s probability of eating profile membership, as well as the indirect associations through the mediatory role of specific parental feeding practices. The results suggested direct links between parent and child eating profiles, with the 'avid eating' and 'avoidant eating' profiles in parents predicting similar profiles in their children. Feeding practices, such as using food for emotional regulation, providing balanced and varied food, and promoting a healthy home food environment, mediated associations between parent and child eating profiles. This research provides novel evidence to reinforce the need for interventions to be specifically tailored to both the parent's and child’s eating profiles. The work also provides an interesting avenue for future longitudinal examination of whether the parents' provision of a healthy home food environment could protect against intergenerational transmission of less favourable eating behaviours.
Original languageEnglish
Article number107589
Number of pages11
JournalAppetite
Volume201
Early online date6 Jul 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2024

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Data Access Statement

Data will be made available on request.

Keywords

  • Avid eating
  • Eating behaviour profiles
  • Parent feeding practices

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