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Research and Professional Brief
Do Mexican-American Mothers’ Food-Related Parenting Practices Influence Their Children’s Weight and Dietary Intake?

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Abstract

Food-related parenting attitudes are thought to influence children’s dietary intake and weight. The objective of this study was to examine the associations between mothers’ reports of food-related parenting and children’s dietary intake and body mass index (BMI). A sample of 108 Mexican-American fifth-grade children and their mothers were surveyed. Children’s height, weight, and three 24-hour dietary recalls were collected. Mothers reported household food insecurity status and food-related parenting attitudes. Correlational analyses were calculated among dietary intake variables, children’s BMI percentiles, and food-parenting behaviors. Mothers’ pressure on their children to eat was inversely correlated with children’s BMI. In food-insecure families, attitudes toward making healthful foods available were inversely associated with children’s daily energy intake and BMI. In contrast, in food-secure families, attitudes about making healthful foods available were positively associated with children’s fruit intake and percentage energy from fat, and parental modeling of healthful food behaviors was inversely associated with the energy density. In our sample of Mexican-American families, mothers’ food-related parenting was associated with their children’s weight and dietary intake. These associations differed in food-secure and food-insecure households. Overall, pressure to eat was highly associated with children’s weight, but the temporal nature of these relationships cannot be discerned.

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Research Design and Study Participants

Data were collected between September 1999 and June 2000 from families of fifth-grade students enrolled in eight elementary schools, which were involved in an obesity prevention trial. Mothers and their fifth-grade children were recruited at school events and through telephone solicitation. The Stanford University Panel on Human Subjects in Research approved the study. Children and mothers provided written consent during the first interview.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted concurrently

Height and Weight

Height and weight were measured by trained research assistants. Standing height without shoes was measured twice, to the nearest millimeter, using a portable direct-reading stadiometer (Shorr Productions, Olney, MD). If the two measures differed by more than 5 mm, a third measure was obtained. Body weight was measured twice, to the nearest 0.1 kg, using digital scales (ScaleTronix, model 5600, White Plains, NY) with subjects wearing light indoor clothing without shoes. If the two measures

Results

A total of 178 mothers were contacted and 131 participated. Biological mothers were the respondents in all but three interviews. Two grandmothers and one aunt who were primary caregivers were included. One child refused to complete the 24-hour recalls, and six children refused height and weight measurements, so the sample with complete data consisted of 124 mother-child dyads. Demographic characteristics of the sample are reported in Table 1. Only families who identified themselves as Mexican

Discussion

This study examines the associations between food-related parenting, children’s dietary intake, and weight status in Mexican-American families. Several findings are of interest. First, parental pressure on children to eat was strongly associated with children’s weights. Mothers of thinner children pressured their children to eat. This result replicates findings from studies conducted with African-American and white populations (5, 6, 9, 13, 14, 37). In general, this body of work indicates that

D. Matheson is a senior research scientist, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.

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D. Matheson is a senior research scientist, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.

A. Varady is a statistical analyst/programmer, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.

J. D. Killen is a professor, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.

T. N. Robinson is an associate professor of Pediatrics and of Medicine, Division of General Pediatrics and Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.

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