Although research shows that "food parenting practices" can impact children's diet and eating habits, current understanding of the impact of specific practices has been limited by inconsistencies in terminology and definitions. This article represents a critical appraisal of food parenting practices, including clear terminology and definitions, by a working group of content experts. The result of this effort was the development of a content map for future research that presents 3 overarching, higher-order food parenting constructs--coercive control, structure, and autonomy support--as well as specific practice subconstructs. Coercive control includes restriction, pressure to eat, threats and bribes, and using food to control negative emotions. Structure includes rules and limits, limited/guided choices, monitoring, meal- and snacktime routines, modeling, food availability and accessibility, food preparation, and unstructured practices. Autonomy support includes nutrition education, child involvement, encouragement, praise, reasoning, and negotiation. Literature on each construct is reviewed, and directions for future research are offered. Clear terminology and definitions should facilitate cross-study comparisons and minimize conflicting findings resulting from previous discrepancies in construct operationalization.

Researchers, clinicians, and health educators might use this measure to better understand how parents feed their children, the factors that contribute to these practices, and the implications of these practices on children's eating behaviors.

Although cross-cultural research between France and the United States has contributed to our understanding of adult eating habits, no research to date has considered differences in the way that French and American parents feed their children. American mothers (n = 59) and fathers (n = 38) and French mothers (n = 72) and fathers (n = 50) provided information about the feeding practices that they use with their children. U.S. parents reported higher levels of non-nutritive feeding practices and child control over feeding, whereas French parents reported greater monitoring and restriction of their child's food intake for weight reasons. Feeding practices were linked to child Body Mass Index (BMI) in both socio-cultural contexts.

Results suggest that the relationship between body size stigmatization and control attributions are consistent with attribution theory for young children. Practical implications of these results and possible interventions are discussed.