Controlling feeding practices and maternal migrant background: an analysis of a multicultural sample

Abstract

4Objective: Parental feeding practices shape children's relationships with food and eating. 5Feeding is embedded socioculturally in values and attitudes related to food and parenting. 6 However, few studies have examined associations between parental feeding practices and 7 migrant background. Design: Cross-sectional study. Parental feeding practices (restriction, pressure to eat, and 9 monitoring) were assessed using the Child Feeding Questionnaire. Differences were explored 10 in four subsamples grouped by maternal place of birth: Sweden, Nordic/Western Europe, 11Eastern/Southern Europe, and countries outside Europe. Crude, partly, and fully adjusted 12 linear regression models were created. Potential confounding variables included child's age, 13 gender, and weight status, and mother's age, weight status, education, and concern about child 14 overweight. 15Setting: Malmö and Stockholm, Sweden. (2) . At the same time, a steeper increase, of about 60%, has 46 been observed in emerging economies (2) . As a response to these rising rates, several studies 47 have addressed the etiology of childhood obesity, in order to inform early prevention 48 strategies (3) . When exploring the etiology of obesity much emphasis has been placed on the 49 impact of environmental and behavioral changes (3,4,5) that influence nutrition and physical 50 activity (6) . Young children are highly dependent on their parents for food provision, and 51 parental feeding practices may thus have a profound effect on children's eating behaviors and 52 weight status (7,8,9,10,11) . 54In Sweden, the prevalence of childhood obesity is about 4%, compared to about 8% in 55 Southern Europe; on the population level, childhood obesity is less pronounced in Sweden 56 compared to other Western and European countries (2) . Moreover, recent epidemiological 57 studies have found that childhood obesity is stabilizing and leveling off in Sweden although 58 the social gradient has become more evident (12,13,14) . Weight disparities between children of 59 Swedish background and children of first or second-generation migrant background persist: in 60 Sweden, children of Turkish, Iranian, and South American background have up to three times 61 higher odds of developing overweight or obesity (15,16) . 63Most research studies on obesity-related parental feeding practices focus on three constructs: 64 restriction, pressure to eat, and monitoring (17,18) . High levels of restriction, characterized by a responsiveness, and lower responsiveness to satiety cues (19,20,21,22,23) . High levels of pressure 68 to eat, a construct that describes pushing a child to eat without prioritizing his or her internal 69 satiety cues, have been related to fussiness, pickiness, and limited interest in food, along with 70 reduced appetite (22,24,25,26) . Restriction and pressure to eat have been associated with 71 children's weight status in numerous studies (27,28,29,30,31) , though a few studies have not found 72 such associations (25,32,33) . Monitoring is...

Estimating and differentiating maternal feeding practices in a country ranked first in childhood obesity

“…Kröller and Warschburger (47) found that the higher the mother's education, the greater the monitoring; and Musher-Eizenman et al (48) found that the higher the mother's education, the less the regulation. The finding of higher educational levels associated with greater pressuring to eat differs from other studies that did not report such an association (22,49) . High parental education has been related to health consciousness in food choices (50,51) and this observed association could be connected to pressure to eat healthy foods.…”

“…In these countries, a scale very similar in content to ours had also been employed. These results support previous suggestions that feeding practices vary by sociocultural background (18,22) . In terms of percentages, not modelling ranked first in frequency; more than six of every ten mothers did not use modelling strategies and consumption of sweetened beverages, candy or snacks in front of the child was a common practice.…”

“…In other countries, such as Poland, parents use the regulation feeding practice less often in 5-year-old girls than in boys regardless of weight status (55) . Other authors have not found maternal feeding practice differences based on the child's sex (22,46,47) . Finally, higher birth order was associated with greater absence of modelling and greater use of pressuring to eat.…”

“…Feeding practices vary by country, as suggested by a study which revealed that, while monitoring and restriction were more prevalent in France, using food as reward was more prevalent in the USA (18) . Moreover, feeding practices might differ by sociocultural background, as shown by Somaraki et al (22) in Sweden. They documented that non-European-born mothers were more concerned about their child's weight than European-born mothers; and maternal concerns explained 52 % of the difference in restriction between Swedish-born and non-Europeanborn mothers.…”

The family meal as an ideal: Children’s perceptions of foodwork and commensality in everyday life and feasts

“…It is moreover noteworthy that negative depictions of family meals, for instance, involving conflicts between family members or children not behaving in the meal situation, were hardly mentioned at all. Whereas, the ideal tells us that family meals are to be happy, warm and commensal, they may in reality entail conflict and power struggles (Wilk, ) or involve controlling feeding practices such as restrictive feeding or pressure to eat (Ek et al, ; Somaraki et al, ). However, the strong normative power surrounding family meals makes it difficult to portray the mundane nature of family meals in research, which may entail negative aspects (Wilk, ).…”