Abstract
Childhood is a critical period in the development of obesity. Eating patterns established early in life track into later life. Therefore, parental approaches to feeding in their general parenting style, feeding styles, and specific feeding practices will have a profound impact on how children eat and grow. A systematic research review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted to identify, discuss and integrate recent research investigating the relationship between parenting styles, feeding styles, feeding practices, and body mass index (BMI) in children. Medline (Ovid), PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Food Science and Technology Abstracts were systematically searched using sensitive search strategies. Studies were limited to papers published in English between 2010 and February 2015 with participants aged 4–12 years old with outcomes including obesity, change in weight, or BMI. The search yielded 31 relevant quantitative peer-reviewed papers meeting all inclusion criteria: seven longitudinal, 23 cross-sectional, one randomized control trial. Associations between parenting style and child BMI were strongest and most consistent within the longitudinal studies. Uninvolved, indulgent or highly protective parenting was associated with higher child BMI, whereas authoritative parenting was associated with a healthy BMI. Similarly for feeding styles, indulgent feeding was consistently associated with risk of obesity within cross-sectional studies. Specific feeding practices such as restriction and pressure to eat were linked to BMI, especially within cross-sectional studies. Where child traits were measured, the feeding practice appeared to be responsive to the child, therefore restriction was applied to children with a high BMI and pressure to eat applied to children with a lower BMI. Behaviors and styles that are specific to the feeding context are consistently associated with child BMI. However, since obesity emerges over time, it is through longitudinal, carefully measured (through questionnaire and observation) studies which take account of child appetite and temperament that the association between parenting style, feeding style, specific feeding practices, and child obesity will be understood.
Introduction
Childhood obesity has become a major global health challenge. In developed nations, approximately 24% of children and adolescents are overweight or obese and in developing countries, rates have reached 13% (from 8% in 1980; Ng et al., ). While obesity rates may have leveled off or declined in some nations (Ogden et al., ), prevalence remains high. Obese children are likely to become obese adults and are at higher risk of developing a range of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes and cancer (Lloyd et al., ). Therefore, it is important to understand the factors which influence obesity development in order to guide future research, interventions, and policy.
Obesity is caused by the chronic mismatch between energy intake and expenditure, with food intake in excess of requirements increasing body mass index (BMI). This chronic imbalance is influenced by gene-environment interactions (Hetherington and Cecil, ). Some of these factors, including candidate genes, socio-economic status (SES), exercise, sedentary behavior, and sleep are well established (Hetherington and Cecil, ; Craigie et al., ; Hart et al., ; Wang et al., ; Ho et al., ; Magee and Hale, ). The interaction between parents and their children is crucial since this is when intake and activity patterns are established. In turn, these influence children's growth patterns and risk of becoming overweight. It is important to understand the interplay between parenting, the food environment, and child weight outcomes. The current review examines the specific modifiable aspects of parent-child interactions (parenting/feeding styles and feeding practices) and their associations with child BMI. Modifiable aspects are of interest because this permits consideration of future interventions to prevent or treat obesity.
Parents are important agents through which food preferences and intake patterns are set, via both direct and indirect influences, from controlling the child's intake to passively modeling a healthy or unhealthy diet (Birch and Fisher, ; Brown and Ogden, ; Cooke et al., ; Clark et al., ; Beydoun and Wang, ; Larsen et al., ). In the present review, the focus is parenting or feeding styles and specific feeding practices which might influence child BMI.
Parenting style is a general behavioral construct which sets the emotional context within which parents and children interact. These have often been characterized as having at least two dimensions: demandingness (how much control parents exercise) and responsiveness (warmth and acceptance in response to their children's needs). Within this definition, there are four types of parenting styles, varying along these two dimensions: (1) authoritative parenting, associated with a high level of demandingness and rules with high responsiveness to the child; (2) authoritarian parenting linked to high demandingness but low responsiveness characterized by rules but with less influence from the child's needs; (3) indulgent parenting combining low demandingness and high responsiveness with few rules but high engagement with the child's needs; and (4) uninvolved parenting which is associated with both low demandingness and low responsiveness. An authoritative parenting style is generally associated with the most positive child outcomes, such as higher school performance (Maccoby and Martin, ; Darling and Steinberg, ) and with a more positive home food environment (Johnson et al., ).
Feeding styles may be viewed as a sub-category of parenting styles that are specific to mealtimes and therefore the same dimensions of demandingness and responsiveness are applied in the feeding context (Hughes et al., ; Ventura and Birch, ; Blissett, ). Thus, with an authoritative feeding style, parents actively encourage their child to eat but achieve this through supportive behaviors including rules explained in a sensitive way whereas with an authoritarian feeding style, parents encourage eating through parent-centric rules (Figure 1).
Figure 1
Feeding practices refer to the specific goal-directed behaviors used by parents to directly influence their children's eating. This might include attempts to increase or decrease intake of certain foods. Common feeding practices include: modeling eating behaviors, restricting certain types of food, pressuring children to eat, rewarding positive behaviors with food, and availability of food at home. A more comprehensive list of specific feeding practices can be found in Gevers et al. (
Given the complexity of the family meal structure, parenting style, feeding style, and feeding practices are defined within broad constructs to simplify research and to promote understanding. The general ways in which parents interact with their children (parenting style) and particularly during meals and snack times (feeding style) may influence parents' choice of feeding practices or the outcomes of these practices (Stang and Loth,
The present systematic review was undertaken to identify, discuss, and integrate recent research exploring the specific parenting styles, feeding styles, and feeding practices which increase or decrease the risk of childhood obesity in children aged 4–12 years old. The search was limited to studies published in the last 5 years to provide an update since the reviews on parenting/feeding styles published by Vollmer and Mobley (
Methods
A systematic search was conducted to identify relevant studies investigating associations between parenting styles, feeding styles, feeding practices, and obesity/overweight in 4–12 year-old children. The search was conducted using Medline (Ovid), PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Food Science and Technology Abstracts. The search strategy (the comprehensive search strategy is available from the authors upon request) addressed key search terms for obesity, parenting styles, and feeding behaviors (including styles and practices). More specifically, literature searches were conducted using a combination of the following key terms: parenting (style), feeding (style, practices, behaviors), and weight-related keywords: eating, diet, (over)weight, obesity, BMI. Age-related terms such as child were not included in the search phase to avoid missing studies that used unusual terms (e.g., third graders) or that did not include age terms in the title of the paper. Nevertheless, studies were limited by child age at a later stage. The final search was limited to papers published in English between 2010 and February 2015, a period of just over 5 years, permitting recent and timely evidence to be included within the search. Studies were included in the review if the mean age of the participants was between 4 and 12 years old and therefore studies with participants with an overlapping age range but with a mean age of < 4 or >12 were excluded. For longitudinal or intervention studies, the sample age at baseline was used. This age group provided a broad base to explore risk within a time of childhood when there is more independence than during infancy and pre-school but with a greater dependence on families for most meal occasions than adolescents or young adults. Studies of children with co-morbidity such as eating disorders, diabetes or other diseases were excluded. Studies in which the outcome was not child BMI or change in weight were excluded as well. Four review papers (Thompson,
Table 1
| Parenting Styles | Country | Sample size; mean (SD) or age range of children in years | Study design | Validated questionnaires | Other measures | Main findings | Scores |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hancock et al., | Australia | 2596 parents and children; 4–5 | Longitudinal | Protective parenting measure | Child weight and height; demographics | Protectiveness at age 6–7 not associated with weight at any age. No association between maternal protectiveness at age 8–9 and overweight/obesity at age 4–5, 6–7 or 8–9 years. Greater maternal protectiveness at age 8–9 was associated with children being overweight or obese at ages 10–11 | 17 |
| Olvera and Power, | USA | 69 mothers and children; 6.7(1.3) | Longitudinal: 3 year follow-up | PDI | Child and parent weight and height; demographics | Indulgent mothers were more likely to have overweight children in a 3 year follow up compared to authoritative or authoritarian mothers | 18 |
| Rodenburg et al., | Netherlands | 1665 parents and children; 8–9 | Cross-sectional | Home Environment Survey (HES); FFQ; Dutch Youth Health Care questionnaire; Parenting scales (Steinberg et al., | Child and parent weight and height; demographics | Rejecting parenting style was associated with increased child BMI | 20 |
| Rodenburg et al., | Netherlands | 1275 parents and children; 8.2(0.5) | Longitudinal | CEBQ; FFQ; Parenting scales (Steinberg et al., | Child's weight and height. | Authoritative parenting was positively associated with fruit consumption of fussy eaters. Neglecting parenting showed a positive association with child's weight | 20 |
| FEEDING STYLES | |||||||
| Frankel et al., | USA | 296 parents and children; 4.4(0.7) | Cross-sectional | CFSQ; CEBQ | Child and parent weight and height | Indulgent feeding style was negatively associated with satiety responsiveness and positively associated with enjoyment of food and BMI | 18 |
| Hennessy et al., | USA | 99 parents and children; 9(1.5) | Cross-sectional | PDI-S; CFSQ; CFQ | Child's weight and height; demographics. | Feeding style, rather than parenting style correlated with child BMI. Indulgent feeding style was associated with a higher child BMI z-score; feeding style moderated the link between restriction and child BMI z-score | 18 |
| Hughes et al., | USA | 177 parents and children; 4.4(0.7) | Cross-sectional with repeated behavioral observations | CFSQ | Child's weight and height; demographics; Home Observation Coding System; Feeding Behavior Coding System (FBCS) | Parents with indulgent feeding styles made fewer demands on their children to eat during dinner and showed lower levels of negative affect and intrusiveness. Hispanic boys with indulgent parents had significantly higher BMI z scores compared to Hispanic boys in the other three feeding style groups. No differences in any other ethinic group | 19 |
| Tovar et al., | USA | 383 mothers and children; 6.2(2.7) | Cross-sectional baseline data from a RCT | CFSQ; Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D); Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) | Parent and child weight and height; demographics | Feeding styles significantly differed by child BMI z-score. Indulgent feeding style was associated with a higher child weight | 16 |
| Yilmaz et al., 2013 | Turkey | 380 parents and children; 5–7 | Cross-sectional | PFSQ | Child weight and height; demographics; visual scale of child body shape | Misperception of child weight was common (42%). Emotional feeding and encouragement to eat were lower in children perceived to be overweight. Emotional feeding and permissive control were lower in children correctly categorized as overweight | 11 |
| FEEDING PRACTICES | |||||||
| Blissett and Bennett, | UK and Germany | 171 families; 2–12 | Cross-sectional and cross-cultural comparison | CFPQ; CEBQ; Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) | Parent's and child weight and height; demographics | Black Afro-Caribbean (BAC) families in the UK followed a more restrictive feeding regime. White German parents used the lowest levels of pressure to eat. Parental restriction was positively associated with child BMI in BAC families only | 17 |
| Campbell et al., | Australia | 392 parents and children; 5–6, 10–12 | Longitudinal: 3 year follow-up | CFQ (Restriction) | Parent's and child's weight and height; demographics | Higher baseline restriction scores were associated with lower BMI z-scores at 3 year follow up in the younger (5–6 years) but not older (10–12 years) children | 16 |
| Cardel et al., | USA | 267 children; 7–12 | Cross sectional | CFQ | Child's weight and height; Pubertal status; Genetic admixture; Socioeconomic status | Parental restriction was a significant predictor of child's BMI. Parental pressure to eat was negatively associated with child BMI | 21 |
| Costa et al., | Brazil | 110 parents and children; 6–10 | Cross sectional | CFQ; The Brazil Economic Classification Criterion | Child weight and height | Boys were more likely to be overweight or obese than girls; high child BMI was associated with higher perceived weight, concern, monitoring and restriction. Pressure to eat was inversely associated with child BMI | 14 |
| Dev et al., | USA | 329 parents and children; 2–5 | Cross-sectional data from a longitudinal study | CFQ;Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ); Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) | Child weight and height; 22 previously identified risk factors for obesity. | Restriction linked to greater likelihood to have an overweight/obese child | 13 |
| Gubbels et al., | Netherlands | 2021 mothers and children; 5–7 | Longitudinal | CFQ; FFQ | Parent and child's weight and height; child's energy balance-related parenting practices; child's dietary intake, activity behavior; demographics | Restriction of unhealthy food was positively associated with child's BMI; monitoring a child's diet was positively associated with children's diet quality | 15 |
| Holland et al., | USA | 170 parents and children; 7–11 | Cross-sectional comparison from RCT | CFQ; Barratt Demographics Questionnaire | Child's weight and height; Child dietary intake | Lower levels of restrictive feeding were associated with lower child BMI-Z scores following intervention | 17 |
| Lee and Keller, | Netherlands | 4987 parents and children; 4 | Cross-sectional | CEBQ; CFQ | Parent and child weight and height | Parents' Pressure to Eat was negatively related to child BMI | 15 |
| Jansen et al., | USA | 77 parents and children; 4.1(0.9) | Cross-sectional | CFQ | Parent and child weight and height; demographics | Child BMI was positively associated with parental concern about child weight and with lower perceived responsibility for feeding | 21 |
| Lee and Keller, | USA | 175 parents and children; 4–6 | Cross-sectional | CFQ | Child's weight and height; test meals served in a lab | Pressure to eat was negatively associated with child BMI z score | 15 |
| Manan et al., | Malaysia | 175 mothers and children; 7–8 | Cross-sectional | CFQ | Child weight and height; demographics | Pressure to eat among parents of overweight and obese children was significantly lower compared to healthy weight children. Food restriction was positively associated with child's BMI | 16 |
| Marshall et al., | Australia | 93 parents and children; 7.6(2.9) | Cross-sectional comparison from baseline measures from an RCT | General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire; CFQ; Family Food Environment questionnaire (FFEQ); CFPQ | Child and parent weight and height; demographics; 24-hour recalls for child's diet | Greater use of a combined guide-and-reward construct and higher levels of concern for their child's intake were significantly associated with lower child BMI-Z scores | 15 |
| Murashima et al., | USA | 330 mothers and children; 4.2(0.6) | Cross-sectional | Parental control over child feeding; the Block Food Screener (BFS); | Child and parent weight and height | Directive control predicted lower child BMI; Mothers' nondirective control was associated with intake of lower energy density and higher nutrient dense foods | 20 |
| Noor et al., | Malaysia | 204 parents and children; 9–12 | Cross-sectional | CFQ (Malay version) | Child weight and height | Higher restriction associated with higher BMI; low SES associated with low BMI | 15 |
| Rollins et al., | USA | 180 mothers and daughters; 5.4(0.4) | Longitudinal | CFQ; Restricted Access Questionnaire (RAQ) | Child weight and height | Limiting or restricting snacks was associated with eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) at 5 years; Low inhibitory control girls had greater increases in EAH and BMI from 5 to 7 years | 17 |
| Taylor et al., | Australia | 175 parents and children; 9.2(1.1) | Cross-sectional | Authoritative Parenting Index (API); CFPQ; Parental activity-related practices; Child Nutrition Questionnaire (CNQ: preference for fruit and vegetable subscales); Children's Attraction to Physical Activity Questionnaire (CAPA) | Parent and child weight and height; parent-reported child diet and physical activity; child's preference for non-core foods; parents' level of education. | General parenting style was not associated with child BMI. Parental food restriction was associated with higher BMI whereas pressure to eat was associated with lower BMI | 20 |
| Tschann et al., | USA | Parents of 174 Mexican American children (quantitative); n = 35 parents (qualitative); 8–10 | Cross-sectional and qualitative | Parental Feeding Practices (PFP) | Parent and child weight and height; Sociodemographic information | Mothers and fathers differed in their use of feeding practices. Higher maternal positive involvement in feeding was associated with lower child BMI. Parental pressure to eat was associated with lower child BMI, parental restriction with higher child BMI. Fathers using food to control behavior had children with lower BMI | 11 |
| Webber et al., | UK | 213 mothers and children; 7–9 | Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from longitudinal study | CEBQ; CFQ | Child weight and height; FMI; WC; demographics | Maternal restriction was associated with food responsiveness. Pressure to eat was associated with satiety responsiveness, slowness of eating, and fussiness. All effects were independent of child BMI | 20 |
| Webber et al., | UK | 213 parents and children; 7–9 | Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from longitudinal study | CFQ | Child weight and height; FMI; WC; demographics; maternal perception of weight and concern about overweight | Higher BMI was associated with lower ‘pressure to eat’ and higher ‘restriction’ scores. Maternal concern about overweight mediated the association between child adiposity and restriction | 20 |
| Webber et al., | UK | 213 parents and children; 7–9 | Longitudinal | CFQ | Child weight and height; FMI; WC | No longitudinal association between child feeding practices at baseline and change in child adiposity. Higher child BMI at baseline was associated with smaller decrease in food monitoring and larger decrease in pressure to eat at follow-up | 19 |
| Wehrly et al., | USA | 243 parents and children; 4–6 | Cross-sectional and cross-cultural comparison | CFQ | Child weight and height; demographics | Pressure to eat negatively associated with BMI. Restriction positively correlated with perceived weight | 19 |
| Zhang and McIntosh, 2011 | USA | 312 parents and children; 11.9(2.2) | Cross-sectional | Child weight and height; interviews about parental control over child feeding | Parental encouragement to eat enough was associated with a lower child BMI and helping children to eat a healthy diet was associated with a higher BMI | 15 | |
Characteristics of the papers identified in the review.
Abbreviations: BMI, Body Mass Index; CEBQ, Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire; CFQ, Child Feeding Questionnaire; CFSQ, Caregiver's Feeding Styles Questionnaire; CFPQ, Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire; FFQ, Food Frequency Questionnaire; FMI, Fat Mass Index; PDI(-S), Parenting Dimension Inventory(-Short Form); PFSQ, Parental Feeding Style Questionnaire; WC, Waist Circumference.
Papers were coded and scored (Table 1) for quality using an adapted rating scale (Moore,
The first author scored all of the papers and remaining three co-authors scored a random sample of 10 papers, resulting in 84% of the papers being scored for quality by at least two researchers. For papers with disagreements of more than three points on quality ratings, an additional independent researcher then scored the papers until an agreement was reached by re-reading the paper and extracting relevant data to support the scores. Scores which were off by 1–2 points were averaged. Finally, an inter-rater reliability coefficient was calculated. The findings indicated a high level of agreement (single measures interclass correlations by use of a one way random effects model, r = 0.85, p < 0.0001). Overall the papers included in this review exceeded a reasonable quality threshold, and most used measured BMI alongside validated measures of parenting/feeding style and/or feeding practices.
Results
The initial search identified 2662 papers. Two hundred and fifty-nine papers were removed due to duplication. Two thousand two hundred and sixty-five papers were excluded upon review of title and abstracts, mostly due to studies with participants outside the specified age range. This was expected as the word “child” was not used in our search to avoid missing research using alternative terms such as pre-adolescents, pre-schoolers, etc. Full text papers were reviewed for 135 studies of which 100 were excluded. These were excluded on the basis of the outcome measure, the age range or the absence of relevant behaviors (see Figure 2). The process resulted in 35 papers for inclusion in this review. Four papers were reviews (Thompson,
Figure 2

Flow diagram study selection process for review. *Two articles addressed parenting style and feeding particles. **One article addressed feeding style and parenting style.
Overall study characteristics
The papers identified by the review process produced a range of sample sizes including relatively small (n = 69, Olvera and Power,
Parenting styles
Characteristics of the studies
The search revealed six papers addressing parenting styles. Three were longitudinal studies (Olvera and Power,
Instruments used
Of the six studies investigating parenting style, four different instruments were used: the Parenting Dimensions Inventory was used in two studies (Hennessy et al.,
Findings
In all three longitudinal studies identified since 2010, parenting style was significantly associated with child weight. Olvera and Power (
Among the three cross-sectional studies, parenting style was a significant predictor of child BMI in only one, large scale study of 9 year-old children (n = 1275; Rodenburg et al.,
Overall, only the longitudinal studies showed that parenting style was consistently associated with child BMI; the cross-sectional studies were more mixed in their findings, perhaps attributable to smaller sample sizes. It can be concluded from the stronger evidence extracted from longitudinal studies that parenting style is associated with child BMI over time and these effects may be influenced by child age and eating traits.
Feeding styles
Characteristics of the studies
In total, five papers investigated feeding style and its association with child BMI and they all used a cross-sectional design (Hennessy et al.,
Instruments used
Most studies (Hennessy et al.,
Findings
In three of the five cross-sectional studies, indulgent feeding styles were associated with higher weight or BMI z-scores (Hennessy et al.,
Mothers of Turkish 5–7 year-olds who perceived their child to be overweight reported less use of emotional feeding styles or encouragement to eat on the Parental Feeding Style Questionnaire (PFSQ; Wardle et al.,
Within a sample of African American and Hispanic American families, an indulgent feeding style was associated with lower satiety responsiveness, higher enjoyment of food, and a higher BMI in the children (Frankel et al.,
Overall, these findings illustrate the more consistent relationship between feeding style and risk of obesity compared to more general measures of parenting style.
Feeding practices
Characteristics of the studies
Most of the papers identified in this review investigated feeding practices. Seventeen studies were cross-sectional (Hennessy et al.,
Instruments used
The Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) developed by Birch et al. (2001) was the most commonly used measure to assess feeding practices and was used in 18 of the 22 empirical studies (Campbell et al.,
In one study (Marshall et al.,
Murashima et al. (
Restriction/control feeding
Of the original research studies, 14 observed a significant association between restrictive/controlling feeding and high child BMI, although this was more strongly evidenced within the cross-sectional studies (see Table 2). Within these studies, one study found the association was specific to girls with low inhibitory control (Rollins et al.,
Table 2
| Year and author | Parenting style (P)/Feeding style (F) | Feeding practices | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indulgent | Authoritative | Authoritarian | Uninvolved | Other | Restriction | Pressure | Monitoring | Other | |
| Campbell et al., | −ˆ | ||||||||
| Hennessy et al., | P0 | P0 | P0 | P0 | − | − | 0 | ||
| Olvera and Power, | P+ | P− | P− | P0 | |||||
| Webber et al., | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Webber et al., | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Webber et al., | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Costa et al., | + | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Gubbels et al., | + | − | − | ||||||
| Hughes et al., | F+# | F0 | F0 | F0 | |||||
| Marshall et al., | 0 | a | |||||||
| Rodenburg et al., | P− | P+ | |||||||
| Taylor et al., | b | + | − | 0 | |||||
| Zhang and McIntosh, 2011 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Cardel et al., | + | − | |||||||
| Jansen et al., | + | − | 0 | ||||||
| Lee and Keller, | − | ||||||||
| Manan et al., | + | − | 0 | ||||||
| Murashima et al., | + | ||||||||
| Noor et al., | + | − | 0 | ||||||
| Rodenburg et al., | P0 | P0 | P0 | P0 | |||||
| Tovar et al., | F+ | ||||||||
| Blissett and Bennett, | + | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Dev et al., | + | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Tschann et al., | + | − | − | ||||||
| Yilmaz et al., 2013 | c | ||||||||
| Frankel et al., | F+ | F+ | |||||||
| Hancock et al., | d | ||||||||
| Holland et al., | + | − | − | ||||||
| Karp et al., | + | − | 0 | ||||||
| Rollins et al., | +% | ||||||||
| Wehrly et al., | + | − | |||||||
The associations between parenting styles, feeding styles and feeding practices with child's weight status.
0, No association/differences found.
+, positive association with child BMI.
−, inverse association with child BMI; grayed out cell indicates that association was not tested.
Higher baseline restriction scores were associated with lower BMI z-scores at 3 year follow up in 5–6 year-old, but not in 10–12 year-old, children.
Positive association only in Hispanic boys, but not other groups.
In children with low inhibitory control.
Rewarding feeding styles was associated with lower BMI.
Responsive and demanding parenting style dimensions were not associated with child BMI.
Emotional feeding and encouragement to eat were lower in children perceived to be overweight.
Greater maternal protectiveness at age 8–9 (but not at 6–7) was associated with children being overweight or obese at ages 10–11.
The four longitudinal studies were equivocal about whether restriction and controlling feeding practices were associated with obesity risk. Two studies found no longitudinal associations between restriction and change in BMI (Webber et al.,
Taking child appetite characteristics into account, the longitudinal study by Rollins et al. (
Of the cross-sectional studies, 12 found that restrictive feeding was linked to child overweight and obesity (see Table 2). Thus, the higher the child BMI, the greater the reported level of restrictive feeding practice. Higher levels of restrictive feeding have also been associated with maternal perceptions that the child has a large appetite (Webber et al.,
Maternal concern about child overweight was also associated with a linear increase in restriction across weight groups, and this maternal concern about overweight mediated the association between child adiposity and restriction (Webber et al.,
Where different groups have been studied within a single study, it is also interesting to note that restrictive practices may differ by sub-group. For example, Cardel et al. (
Wehrly et al. (
Feeding practices such as restriction are subject to parental perception of their child's weight and are modifiable. This was demonstrated in the trial by Holland et al. (
Across the four longitudinal studies, restrictive feeding practices were not consistently related to weight change over time. One found weight gain was more related to child inhibitory control than restriction (Rollins et al.,
Pressure to eat
Pressure to eat is a practice parents may use to encourage or cajole their child to eat enough food. Pressure to eat was associated with lower child BMI in 11 cross-sectional studies (Hennessy et al.,
Although there were studies finding no associations between parental pressure to eat and child weight (Blissett and Bennett,
In another study involving an ethnically and economically diverse sample, pressure to eat differed by parental ethnicity and by family income (Wehrly et al.,
Webber et al. (
Monitoring child intake
Among 17 papers investigating the associations between monitoring and weight, most studies (n = 14) found no link between monitoring intake and child BMI (see Table 2). In fact, some forms of monitoring child intake may protect against obesity.
Of two longitudinal studies, one found no relationship between monitoring and child weight (Webber et al.,
One study examined a wide variety of feeding practices as part of a larger RCT to identify the role of learning and co-participation in eating decisions on child BMI (Marshall et al.,
Ethnic differences in parental feeding practices were found by Blissett and Bennett (
Exploring potential bi-directional relationships, a longitudinal study reported that a high baseline child BMI was associated with a lower decrease in the use of monitoring over time (Webber et al.,
Positive involvement
The concept of “positive involvement” encompasses several “protective elements,” defined by Tschann et al. (
Discussion
The primary objective of the current review was to identify modifiable parental behaviors associated with overweight and obesity in children aged 4–12 years. Overall in this age group, the evidence suggests that the indulgent and uninvolved parenting and feeding styles were associated with a higher child BMI. Associations between parenting style and child BMI were strongest and most consistent within the longitudinal studies; whereas for specific feeding practices such as restriction and pressure to eat, these were linked to BMI most strongly within cross-sectional studies. Measures of feeding style were more consistently related to the risk of obesity than were more general measures of parenting style. Few studies identified protective feeding practices, but in one case, monitoring was linked with lower BMI in a longitudinal context (Gubbels et al.,
Parenting styles
Indulgent or uninvolved parenting was generally linked to higher child BMI (e.g., Hughes et al.,
Given the importance of these observations for promoting authoritative parenting, there is a clear need to use consistent measures of parenting styles across studies. In the present review, four different measurement tools were identified across the six studies to investigate parenting style and a wide range of definitions was applied. Consensus in definition, concepts and measurements will lead to greater consensus in study outcomes, as suggested by Blissett (
Feeding styles
Mixed findings were identified for feeding styles. Authoritative feeding styles were protective against the risk of obesity and were associated with a higher consumption of fruit and vegetables (Rodenburg et al.,
Evidence of ethnic differences and their associations with different feeding styles was reported. As such, Tovar et al. (
Feeding practices
Specific feeding practices were linked to child BMI across a number of studies, supporting existing observations of these relationships (e.g., Faith et al.,
Hurley et al. (
Cross-sectional studies provide a snapshot but fail to take account of how parents respond to their children over time and how this evolves as children grow. The cause and effect direction is not known. It is feasible that restriction is applied to children with high food approach tendencies (e.g., Webber et al.,
A few large-scale longitudinal studies have explored the reciprocal relationship between feeding practices and weight. The analyses by Webber et al. (
Gerards and Kremers (
It is also important to account for moderators such as child age, parent gender, family income, ethnic group, and family eating behaviors (e.g., parental involvement in child's eating, e.g., Tschann et al.,
In summary, specific feeding practices are linked to the risk of overweight and obesity. In particular, restricting food intake has been associated with higher child BMI. As previously mentioned, these practices may be used in response to the child's behavior. In either case, the use of certain feeding practices might be subject to additional considerations such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and gender. Thus, it is possible that the ways in which researchers refer to these common feeding practices mask the complexity of the parent-child interaction and the various strategies parents may use with their children to influence eating behavior (Tovar et al.,
Limitations
The search applied in this review only identified peer-reviewed papers published in English. It is possible that relevant studies in other languages, as part of a thesis, or in journals not indexed in the databases searched may not have been identified.
A limitation of the present review was the lack of studies which investigated feeding practices such as modeling, use of rewards, instrumental, and emotional feeding (see Gevers et al.,
A significant limitation identified in this review is the lack of consensus among researchers, firstly in applying the definitions of the constructs and in identifying “gold standard” measures for assessing parenting and feeding behaviors. Parenting styles, feeding styles, and feeding practices were conceptualized in the literature via a range of definitions and thus the ability to draw conclusions across such diverse ways of measuring each element as it links to child weight is challenging. Blissett (
Since findings from the studies in this review are based almost entirely on parent-report, there is a risk of biased or inaccurate outcomes, with parents potentially misreporting their behaviors due to lack of awareness, social desirability bias, or differences in use of rather subjective scales (e.g., differences in interpretation of how much is “often”). Further, a recent review by Bergmeier et al. (
Since many of the studies were cross-sectional, the ability to attribute causality to the findings is limited Gerards and Kremers,
Another limitation is the wide range of ages we addressed (4–12 years). It is possible that some feeding practices may have a larger impact at particular periods of child development, whereas they may have different effects at other time points. For example, young children may benefit from restriction (Campbell et al.,
Finally, this systematic review addressed the importance of modifiable factors, namely parenting styles and feeding practices, on children's body weight. Although theoretically feeding styles may be more difficult to modify than individual feeding practices, there is no evidence thus far to prove that feeding styles are stable and set. In contrast, the findings that mothers with higher education levels have different feeding styles compared to less educated mothers (e.g., Saxton et al.,
Future work
One of the key messages from this review is that the ways in which parents feed their children may be influenced by child characteristics such as food approach or avoidance tendencies. However, most studies to date have been conducted cross-sectionally, making it difficult to draw conclusions about the directionality of the associations between feeding practices and child characteristics. Longitudinal studies are required to ascertain the long term, reciprocal nature of parenting, feeding styles, practices, and child characteristics on child BMI. Studies which include measures of child appetitive traits, temperament as well as parental eating behaviors are important so that parenting and feeding styles are understood within the broader context of the parent-child interaction. Therefore, developing measures to assess both child and parent eating behaviors and mealtime interaction is crucial for future research. By better understanding the roles of feeding styles and feeding practices and their interactions with other family factors, clinicians will be better able to counsel families in adopting appropriate feeding practices.
Most of the studies have relied on parent report of their feeding practices and direct observation has been mostly restricted to small scale laboratory-based studies. The development of new technologies for collecting video data through the internet may present opportunities for researchers to film meals in more natural settings. User-friendly webcams or smartphone cameras used during family meal occasions provide a novel platform to complement questionnaire studies to assess parental styles, feeding styles, and feeding practices in the home or other more natural environments.
Culture, ethnicity and SES have been associated with parenting and feeding behaviors (Tovar et al.,
Finally, as much of the research focuses on mothers' interactions with children during mealtimes, studies of fathers are warranted to identify gender differences in parenting, feeding styles, and practices (Tschann et al.,
To conclude, parenting styles, feeding styles, and parenting practices have been associated with child BMI. Protective effects of authoritative parenting and feeding styles might occur as a function of the limit setting, structure, and guidance applied in feeding situations; the limits are used to assist children in learning about food and setting the foundation for healthy eating. Grolnick and Pomerantz (
Funding
Award number RG.PSYC.103988 to University of Leeds from Nestec SA, Nestlé, Vevey, Switzerland. Support for postdoctoral training in systematic research reviews for Dr. Netalie Shloim.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Statements
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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Summary
Keywords
parenting styles, feeding styles, feeding practices, obesity, children
Citation
Shloim N, Edelson LR, Martin N and Hetherington MM (2015) Parenting Styles, Feeding Styles, Feeding Practices, and Weight Status in 4–12 Year-Old Children: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Front. Psychol. 6:1849. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01849
Received
29 July 2015
Accepted
14 November 2015
Published
14 December 2015
Volume
6 - 2015
Edited by
Adrian Meule, University of Salzburg, Austria
Reviewed by
Simone Munsch, University of Fribourg, Switzerland; Alison Tovar, University of Rhode Island, USA
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© 2015 Shloim, Edelson, Martin and Hetherington.
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*Correspondence: Netalie Shloim netalieshalom1977@gmail.com
This article was submitted to Eating Behavior, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
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