William James Center for Research, ISPA-Instituto Universitário, 1149-041 Lisboa, Portugal.
Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL 61801, USA.
Nutrients. 2021 Apr 17;13(4):1334. doi: 10.3390/nu13041334.
Although there is a large body of research connecting emotion to eating behaviors, little is known about the role of caregivers' responses to children's emotions in the context of child feeding. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relation between caregivers' emotional responsiveness and feeding responsiveness. The mothers of 137 children between 2 and 6 years of age reported on their responses to children's negative emotions using the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale and on their feeding practices using the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire. The results showed that mothers' supportive emotion responses (e.g., problem-focused, emotion-focused, and expressive encouragement reactions) tend to be positively associated with responsive feeding practices (e.g., encouraging, modelling, and teaching healthy food-related behaviors). Instead, mothers' unsupportive responses (e.g., distress, punitive and minimization reactions) tend to be positively associated with nonresponsive feeding practices (e.g., food as reward or to regulate emotions, and pressure to eat) and negatively associated with responsive feeding practices. Our results suggest that emotional and feeding responsiveness may be intertwined and that differences in parent's emotional responsiveness may translate into differences in their feeding styles, setting the stage for parents' use of positive vs. negative feeding practices.
尽管有大量研究将情绪与饮食行为联系起来，但对于照顾者对儿童情绪的反应在儿童喂养中的作用知之甚少。本研究的目的是分析照顾者情绪反应性与喂养反应性之间的关系。137 名 2 至 6 岁儿童的母亲使用《应对儿童负面情绪量表》报告了她们对儿童负面情绪的反应，使用《综合喂养实践问卷》报告了她们的喂养实践。结果表明，母亲的支持性情绪反应（例如，问题焦点、情绪焦点和表达鼓励反应）往往与反应性喂养实践呈正相关（例如，鼓励、示范和教授健康的与食物相关的行为）。相反，母亲的不支持性反应（例如，痛苦、惩罚和最小化反应）往往与非反应性喂养实践呈正相关（例如，食物作为奖励或调节情绪，以及强迫进食），与反应性喂养实践呈负相关。我们的结果表明，情绪和喂养反应性可能相互交织，父母情绪反应性的差异可能转化为他们喂养方式的差异，为父母使用积极的喂养实践与消极的喂养实践奠定了基础。
