ResearchCurrent researchParental control over feeding and children’s fruit and vegetable intake: How are they related?
Section snippets
Procedure
Twenty-two nursery schools in London, UK, with a total of 896 pupils in the age range 2 to 6 years, were invited to participate in a study of children’s food preferences. The survey was publicized with posters displayed in the nurseries. Questionnaires were left for staff to distribute to parents, together with a postage-paid return envelope. Anonymity for participants was ensured by numbering questionnaires and linking these numbers to parents’ names in a separately stored file.
Demographic characteristics
Respondents
Response rates and sample characteristics
Nine hundred questionnaires were given out to nursery schools, of which 572 were returned (64%). Data from eight respondents were excluded because their children failed to meet the age criteria for the study, leaving a final sample size of 564. Parental respondents were between age 21 and 59 years, with a mean of 36 years (standard deviation=5). Three hundred eighty-six respondents (68%) reported their ethnicity as white European, 105 (19%) as other, and 73 (13%) declined to answer. Five
Discussion
The results of the present study replicate, in a substantially different sample and setting, the negative association between parental control and children’s fruit and vegetable consumption previously reported in American girls (9). It is not possible to compare absolute effect sizes because the two studies used different measures of control and fruit and vegetable consumption. However, the (unadjusted) correlation between parental control and fruit and vegetable consumption in this sample was
Conclusions
The emergence of neophobia as an important predictor of low fruit and vegetable intake in children may reduce some of the blame typically apportioned to parents. Nevertheless, the strong parent-child similarities in fruit and vegetable consumption observed here and elsewhere emphasize the importance of parents’ own intake in overcoming this natural predisposition. Future interventions aimed at increasing children’s intake of fruits and vegetables would be well advised to target parents’ eating
J. Wardle is director, S. Carnell is a research psychologist, and L. Cooke is a research psychologist, Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, England.
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J. Wardle is director, S. Carnell is a research psychologist, and L. Cooke is a research psychologist, Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, England.