The effect of child picky eating on parental feeding style in SNAP and non-SNAP families with preschool (3-5 age) children aka the Parent and Toddler Health (PATH) study
Creators: name: Shearrer, Grace
name: Pour, Sara Ghasem
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Medicine and Health Sciences

description: Picky eating in children can have a significant impact on the way parents feed their children. Parents of picky eaters may experience challenges such as frustration, stress, and anxiety when trying to provide a balanced diet for their children. One common feeding style associated with picky eating is the use of pressure to eat, which can lead to reducing their willingness to try new foods. In the restrictive feeding style, parents control the amount or variety of food offered to improve the child's overall health, and the child's weight . Also, parents may have specific expectations about the types of foods they want their child to eat. This could include preferences for organic or whole foods, adherence to cultural or religious dietary restrictions, or concerns about specific nutrients or food groups. Alternatively parents can be permissive, providing too much food to please the child or ensure they are getting enough to eat. Both styles can contribute to picky eating. Furthermore, parental feeding styles can vary depending on socioeconomic status. Supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) participation has been associated with improved food security and dietary quality, but little is known about the relationship between SNAP participation, parental feeding style, and child eating. To investigate the relationship between picky eating, parental feeding styles, and SNAP participation, we will recruit 84 parent-child dyads between the ages of 3-5 years (42 from SNAP and 42 from non-SNAP families) from local Laramie preschools. Data will be collected through parental surveys including: the child eating behavior questionnaire (CEBQ), a combination of questions from the expanded food and nutrition education program (EFNEP) adult survey and a physical activity survey, and parental feeding style questionnaire (PFSQ). In the lab, we will measure the child’s height and weight and calculate the child’s body mass index percentile (BMI%) adjusted for age and sex. We aim to examine how a child's picky eating affects parental feeding behavior/style and the combined relationship on their child’s BMI%. We hypothesize a child's picky eating will be associated with increased parental pressure to eat, parents paying less attention, which can reduce emphasis on permissiveness and autonomy to the child’s food choices, and using more restrictive and controlling feeding methods. The second aim of the study is to determine whether child’s picky eating mediates relationships between a family’s participation in the SNAP program mediates and parental feeding styles. We hypothesize that in SNAP families, a child's picky eating will increase parental pressure to eat and decrease the monitoring of unhealthy items. This study delves into the association between SNAP, parental feeding style, and picky eating in families, understanding this relationship is crucial in identifying potential interventions to improve child nutrition and health outcomes.