Controlling feeding practices moderate the relationship between emotionality and food fussiness in young children

Rendall, S., Dodd, H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1446-5338 and Harvey, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6819-0934 (2022) Controlling feeding practices moderate the relationship between emotionality and food fussiness in young children. Appetite, 178. 106259. ISSN 0195-6663 doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106259

Abstract/Summary

Emotional child temperament has consistently been found to be related to food fussiness. One factor that may exacerbate or reduce the risk conferred by children’s emotionality is parent feeding practices during mealtimes. Specifically, the use of controlling feeding practices aimed at increasing food consumption may particularly affect children with an emotional temperament. The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether the association between child food fussiness and higher emotionality found in previous studies is moderated by maternal use of controlling feeding practices, namely verbal pressure, physical prompts and food rewards. Sixty-seven mother-child dyads were video-recorded during a meal in their home and mothers’ use of controlling feeding practices during this meal were coded. Mothers completed a questionnaire assessing child temperament. Moderation analyses revealed that maternal use of verbal pressure and physical prompts moderated the relationship between higher emotionality and food fussiness, but maternal use of food rewards did not. These results indicate that the use of verbal pressure and physical prompts may have a particularly negative influence on fussy eating for children higher in emotionality.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/107407
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.appet.2022.106259
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Nutrition and Health
Publisher	Elsevier
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