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Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many mothers and fathers have spent more time at home with their children, warranting consideration of parenting practices around food during the pandemic as influences on obesogenic eating behaviors among children. Structure-related feeding practices, particularly around snacking, may be particularly challenging yet influential in the pandemic setting. Parent sex and levels of feeding-related co-operation among parents (co-feeding) are understudied potential influences on parent-child feeding relationships., Methods: We investigated relationships between structure-related parent feeding and child food approach behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, while considering potential moderating influences of parent sex and co-feeding levels. An online survey was completed by 318 parents (206 mothers and 112 fathers) of 2-12-year-olds who were living in states with statewide or regional lockdowns in May/June 2020 within the US. Mothers and fathers were drawn from different families, with each survey corresponding to a unique parent-child dyad. Parental stress/mental health, co-feeding (Feeding Coparenting Scale), structure-related food and snack parenting (Feeding Practices and Structure Questionnaire and Parenting around SNAcking Questionnaire), and child eating behaviors (Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire) were assessed. Relationships of parents' structure-related food and snack parenting practices with their child's emotional overeating and food responsiveness behaviors were examined using structural equation modelling. Further, we investigated whether these relations were moderated by parent sex or level of co-feeding., Results: Parent sex differences were seen in parental stress, mental health, and co-feeding, but not in structure-related food and snack parenting or child food approach eating behaviors. Structure-related food parenting was negatively associated with emotional overeating. However, structure-related snack parenting was positively associated with emotional overeating and food responsiveness. While regression paths varied between mothers vs. fathers, as well as by co-feeding levels, neither parent sex nor co-feeding levels significantly moderated relationships between parent feeding and child eating variables., Conclusions: Future studies of food and snack parenting and co-operation in relation to feeding among mothers and fathers within a familial unit may be critical to identify intervention strategies that draw on all family resources to better navigate future disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Binge watching is becoming increasingly common and may impact energy balance and body weight. The COVID-19 pandemic has created conditions conducive to binge watching and increased stress. We investigated relationships between COVID-related stress and binge watching behaviors, and potential variation in this relationship by body weight. Adults ( n = 466) completed a cross-sectional online survey assessing binge watching behaviors during and before the pandemic, COVID-related stress, and body weight. Participants reported an increase in binge watching frequency from before to during the pandemic (F 1,401 = 99.970, p < 0.001), with rates of high binge watching ("3-4 times per week" to "3 or more times per day") increasing from 14.6% to 33.0%. Binge watching episode duration increased from 3.26 ± 1.89 h to 3.92 ± 2.08 h ( p < 0.001). The increase in binge watching frequency was greatest in individuals with obesity and high stress (F 4,401 = 4.098, p = 0.003). Participants reporting high stress reported higher frequency of eating while binge watching, as well as higher levels of negative emotional triggers, consequences to binge watching, and lack of control over binge watching (all p < 0.001). Our results show that binge watching increased during the pandemic, with greater increases among individuals reporting higher COVID-related stress, especially those with obesity, and concomitant effects on eating, and highlight a need for interventions to minimize the obesogenic impact of binge watching during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic and public health measures to reduce its transmission have increased stress. Stress is associated with alterations in eating behavior which may be partly driven by effects on food-related motivation. To investigate effects of COVID-related stress on food motivation, we recruited adults (N = 429; 272 F, 157 M) to complete an online survey via Amazon MTurk in May 2020. Current COVID-related stress, retrospective pre-COVID stress, and motivation in relation to individualized preferred foods from five categories (sweet snacks, fruit, savory snacks, vegetables, and fast food) were assessed. Food motivation measures included willingness to wait, willingness to expend low effort [finger taps], willingness to expend high effort [jumping jacks], and willingness to pay for hypothetical delivery of the food item. Food motivation for each food type was assessed using a novel instrument designed for brief assessment of multiple aspects of food motivation across multiple food types. Participants were willing to pay the most for fast food followed by sweet snacks, and willing to wait longer for sweet snacks relative to other food types. While fast food and sweets also generated the most willingness to expend high and low effort, willingness to expend low effort for fruit was similar to that for fast food and sweets, and willingness to expend high effort for fruit was comparable to that for fast food. Participants were least willing to pay or expend low effort for vegetables. Higher COVID-related stress levels were associated with willingness to expend more effort and pay more for food items. These data collected during the pandemic demonstrate that highly processed and sweet foods have high motivating value across multiple measures of motivation, and COVID-related stress increases food motivation across food categories. Interventions to mitigate stress and target the link between stress and overeating may help to limit the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on obesity., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

(1) Background: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused disruptions to what people eat, but the pandemic's impact on diet varies between individuals. The goal of our study was to test whether pandemic-related stress was associated with food intake, and whether relationships between stress and intake were modified by appetitive and cognitive traits. (2) Methods: We cross-sectionally surveyed 428 adults to examine current intake frequency of various food types (sweets/desserts, savory snacks, fast food, fruits, and vegetables), changes to food intake during the pandemic, emotional overeating (EOE), cognitive flexibility (CF), and COVID-19-related stress. Models tested associations of stress, EOE, and CF with food intake frequency and changes to intake. (3) Results: Models demonstrated that the positive relationship between stress and intake of sweets/desserts was stronger with higher EOE, while the positive relationship between stress and intake of chips/savory snacks was weaker with higher CF. Higher EOE was associated with greater risk of increased intake of palatable foods. (4) Conclusions: Findings suggest that emotional overeating may escalate stress-associated intake of high-sugar foods, and cognitive flexibility may attenuate stress-associated intake of high-fat foods. Differences in appetitive and cognitive traits may explain changes to and variability in food intake during COVID-19, and efforts to decrease emotional overeating and encourage cognitive flexibility could help lessen the effect of COVID-19-related stress on energy dense food intake.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions to the lives of families. This study aimed to investigate the impact of pandemic-associated stress on food parenting practices including interactions surrounding snacks, and child diet.Methods: Parents (N = 318) of 2-12-year old children completed a cross-sectional online survey assessing current COVID-19-specific stress, pre-COVID-19 stress, financial stress (e.g. food insecurity), food parenting practices, and child snack intake frequency. Structural Equation Modeling was used to model simultaneous paths of relationships and test direct and indirect effects.Results: Stress, including financial hardship, was higher compared with before the crisis. The majority of children had regular mealtimes and irregular snack times. Higher COVID-19-specific stress was associated with more non-nutritive use of food and snacks (e.g. emotional and instrumental feeding), but also more structure and positive interactions (e.g. eating with or engaging with child around mealtimes). Higher COVID-19-specific stress was also associated with greater child intake frequency of sweet and savory snacks, with some evidence for mediation by snack parenting practices.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that stress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may be linked to child snack intake with potential impacts on child obesity risk, and suggest several modifiable points of intervention within the family context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]