Search

Item does not contain fulltext, Food parenting practices refer to food-specific, goal-oriented, discrete, and observable acts of parenting, which play an important role in the development of children's dietary behavior and Body Mass Index (BMI). During the past decade, experimental and intervention studies have improved our knowledge of the influence of food parenting practices on the development of children’s healthy dietary intake, including fruit and vegetable (F&V) intakes. However, less is known about whether and how food parenting practices influence the children’s intake of less healthy foods, including energy-dense foods and sugar-sweetened drinks and excessive weight gain and the risk of obesity. This chapter aims to summarize the recent advances in the studies of food parenting to create a clear picture of the potential targets for intervention research.

Contains fulltext : 197324.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), Increasing attention has been given to direct associations of general parenting styles with children's obesity. General parenting styles (i.e., authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved) refer to the broad emotional context reflecting childrearing across situations and domains (Darling and Steinberg, 1993). Parenting styles focus less on what parents do (i.e., behavior-specific parenting practices) and more on how they do it in general (Power, 2013). In this commentary, we argue that general parenting styles should be conceptualized as a contextual factor that may moderate the influence of weight-related (e.g., food) parenting practices on behavior and weight outcomes among children, as opposed to having direct effects on those outcomes.

Item does not contain fulltext, Although parents often report positive intentions to promote and create a healthy food environment for their children (e.g., setting limits to snacks offered), they also experience difficulties in translating these intentions into actual behaviors. In this position paper, we argue that automatic processes explain an important part of the gap between parents' intentions and their actual food parenting behaviors. We provide a conceptual framework in which we hypothesize that automatic effects on food parenting occur through two key interrelated constructs: habits (key outcome construct) and volitional regulation behaviors (key mediating construct). Moreover, we discuss potentially important impulse-focused techniques that may directly change habits (e.g., nudging; inhibitory control training) or indirectly through volitional regulation behaviors (e.g., implementation intentions; mental contrasting). We make use of the literature on the role of intention-behavior discordance in general health behaviors and discuss implications for food parenting practices. Our framework provides a dual process view towards food parenting and may help to explain when and why parents are likely to engage in (un)healthy food parenting behaviors. In addition, this framework may hopefully stimulate research on (combinations of old and) new techniques to promote good food parenting behaviors.

Item does not contain fulltext, Few studies have examined direct effects of food cues presented within television (TV) programs on eating behavior in adults. This research experimentally determined whether exposure to food cues in TV programs affects energy intake during TV viewing among young women, independently from food cues presented in TV advertisements. The experiment involved a 2 (TV program with or without food cues) by 2 (TV advertisements with or without food cues) between-participants design. While watching TV, participants could freely eat peanut chocolate candies and crisps (potato chips). Participants were 121 young women (mean age = 19.6 years; mean BMI = 22.5). Participants who watched a TV program with food cues tended to have a lower total energy intake and ate significantly less peanut chocolate candies than participants who watched the same TV program without food cues. This effect was particularly pronounced among participants with a higher BMI. Food advertisements did not affect energy intake. Findings may indicate that subtle continuous food cues during TV programs could make young females more aware of their own eating and/or weight, leading to reduced intake of particularly sweet snack foods during TV viewing. Considering the non-significant trend for the effect of the TV program with food cues on total energy intake, findings should be replicated to provide possible tools for prevention campaigns using food cue reminders to watch one's intake.

Item does not contain fulltext, Until now, the literatures on the effects of food parenting practices and parents' own dietary behavior on children's dietary behavior have largely been independent from one another. Integrating findings across these areas could provide insight on simultaneous and interacting influences on children's food intake. In this narrative review, we provide a conceptual model that bridges the gap between both literatures and consists of three main hypotheses. First, parental dietary behavior and food parenting practices are important interactive sources of influence on children's dietary behavior and Body Mass Index (BMI). Second, parental influences are importantly mediated by changes in the child's home food environment. Third, parenting context (i.e., parenting styles and differential parental treatment) moderates effects of food parenting practices, whereas child characteristics (i.e., temperament and appetitive traits) mainly moderate effects of the home food environment. Future studies testing (parts of) this conceptual model are needed to inform effective parent-child overweight preventive interventions.

Item does not contain fulltext, Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between depressive symptoms and subsequent body mass index (BMI) z scores among early-to-mid adolescents, extending previous research by using objectively measured weight and height data. Methods: Latent growth curve analysis was used to examine whether growth parameters of zBMI could be predicted by depressive symptoms (n = 2,051 adolescents, 48.5% female, at baseline; 1,465 with data at all three time points). Specifically, we tested whether depressive symptoms were associated with the initial assessment of BMI (intercept) as well as with changes in BMI over time (slope). Analyses were performed for the total group, and separately for boys and girls. Results: Depressive symptoms were not associated with the slope of zBMI. In girls, but not boys, depressive symptoms were positively associated with the intercept of zBMI. Conclusions: Findings suggest that although depressive symptoms among females are associated with a higher zBMI, they do not predict excessive weight gain during early-to-mid adolescence.

Item does not contain fulltext, BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to examine the association between adolescents' body mass index (BMI) z-scores and their subsequent level of schooling, extending previous longitudinal research by using objectively measured weight and height data. METHODS A longitudinal study with 3 study waves (1-year intervals) involving 1248 Dutch adolescents (49% girls; mean age = 13.7 years) at schools providing different educational levels was used to determine adolescents who moved and did not move to a lower educational level in the first year, or in the second year, and to examine whether this movement could be predicted by BMI z-scores (zBMI), after controlling for a large range of potential confounding factors. RESULTS A total of 1164 Dutch adolescents continued in the same level of education, whereas 84 adolescents moved to a lower educational level (43 moved in the first and 41 in the second year). A higher zBMI significantly increased the risk of a general transition to a lower educational level, and of a transition in the first year, but not in the second year, after controlling for potential demographic, behavioral, and psychological confounds. CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that a higher zBMI during adolescence immediately lowers educational achievement level during general secondary education.