Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, University College London, London, UK.
Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2023 Oct;64(10):1432-1445. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13819. Epub 2023 May 15.
Parental feeding practices (PFPs) are a key component of a child's food environment. Parent-child feeding relationships are hypothesised to be bidirectional; however, to date, few large prospective studies have examined this, instead focussing on unidirectional relationships. As such, the direction of relationships between PFPs and children's eating behaviours remains unclear.
Data were from Gemini, a population-based sample of children born in England and Wales in 2007. Children's eating behaviours and PFPs were measured at 15/16 months and 5 years using validated psychometric measures (n = 1,858 children). Bivariate Latent Change Score Modelling was used to examine the nature of relationships between PFPs and children's eating behaviours at 15/16 months and 5 years. Models were adjusted to account for clustering of twins within families and for sex of the child, socioeconomic status, gestational age and age of the child at measurement time points.
A reciprocal relationship was observed between instrumental feeding and emotional overeating, with greater instrumental feeding predicting greater increases in emotional overeating (β = .09; 0.03-0.15; p = .004) and vice versa (β = .09; 0.03-0.15; p = .005). Reciprocity was also observed between encouragement to eat nutritious foods and children's enjoyment of food, with greater encouragement predicting greater increases in enjoyment of food (β = .08; 0.02-0.13; p = .006) and vice versa (β = .07; 0.02-0.11; p = .003). Parent-child associations and child-parent associations were also observed.
These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that certain feeding practices are used as a 'natural' response to a child expressing a greater interest in and enthusiasm for food, but at the same time, such practices impact the development of eating behaviours by nurturing and encouraging the expression of higher emotional overeating and greater enjoyment of food in preschool years. The findings provide important insights into the PFPs and eating behaviour traits that could be targeted as part of a tailored feeding intervention to support parents of children during the preschool formative years.
父母喂养行为（PFPs）是儿童食物环境的关键组成部分。亲子喂养关系被假设为是双向的；然而，迄今为止，很少有大型前瞻性研究对此进行过检验，而是侧重于单向关系。因此，PFPs 与儿童饮食行为之间的关系方向尚不清楚。
本研究的数据来自 Gemini，这是一项基于人群的研究，对象为 2007 年在英格兰和威尔士出生的儿童。使用经过验证的心理测量学测量方法，在 15/16 个月和 5 岁时测量儿童的饮食行为和 PFPs（n=1858 名儿童）。双变量潜在变化评分模型用于检验 15/16 个月和 5 岁时 PFPs 与儿童饮食行为之间的关系性质。模型调整考虑了双胞胎在家庭内的聚类以及儿童的性别、社会经济地位、胎龄和测量时间点的年龄。
观察到工具性喂养和情绪性过度进食之间存在相互关系，较大的工具性喂养预示着情绪性过度进食的增加更大（β=0.09；0.03-0.15；p=0.004），反之亦然（β=0.09；0.03-0.15；p=0.005）。在鼓励儿童食用营养食品与儿童对食物的享受之间也观察到了相互关系，更大的鼓励预示着对食物享受的增加更大（β=0.08；0.02-0.13；p=0.006），反之亦然（β=0.07；0.02-0.11；p=0.003）。还观察到了父母-子女的关联和子女-父母的关联。
这些发现与以下假设一致，即某些喂养行为被用作儿童对食物表现出更大兴趣和热情的“自然”反应，但同时，这些行为通过培养和鼓励在学龄前表达更高的情绪性过度进食和更大的对食物的享受，影响饮食行为的发展。这些发现为 PFPs 和饮食行为特征提供了重要的见解，这些特征可以作为支持幼儿期父母的定制喂养干预的一部分进行针对性干预。
