Emotional and instrumental feeding practices of Dutch mothers regarding foods eaten between main meals

Abstract

BackgroundTo assess how much of a public health problem emotional and instrumental feeding practices are, we explored the use of these feeding practices in a sample of Dutch mothers regarding their child’s food intake between main meals.MethodsA cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among 359 mothers of primary school children aged 4–12 years. The questionnaires were completed online at home.ResultsOf the mothers, 29.5% reported using foods to reward, 18.1% to punish and 18.9% to comfort their child. Mothers most frequently offered energy-dense and nutrient-poor products such as candy in the context of emotional and instrumental feeding practices. The use of these practices was associated with a lower age of both mother and child and a higher educational level of the mother. Mothers living in neighborhoods with intermediate socioeconomic position used the practices less often than mothers from low and high socioeconomic position neighborhoods.ConclusionsOur results show that mothers in our sample mainly used unhealthy products in the context of instrumental and emotional feeding practices. Research into the association between these practices and children’s dietary intake is warranted, since the use of unhealthy products in the context of these practices may not necessarily lead to an increased consumption of these products. Findings regarding the frequency of use of these practices among specific subgroups can be used to carefully determine the target population for interventions and tailor the content of interventions to specific target group characteristics. Besides examining associations between personal and family characteristics and the use of emotional and instrumental feeding practices, attempts should be made to understand parents’ reasons for using them.

Is it still a real treat? Adults' treat provision to children

“…'Reward for good behaviour' was the participants' primary motivation for treat food provision, in accordance with previous knowledge that the use of foods for behavioural control is a common practice among parents and teachers (Blaine et al, 2015;Kubik, Lytle, Hannan, Story, & Perry, 2002;Raaijmakers, Gevers, Teuscher, Kremers, & van Assema, 2014). Research has shown that using unhealthy foods as a reward or an emotion control instrument may reinforce children's preference of those foods, and may increase the risk of dietary disorders, such as binge eating, emotional eating and dietary restraint (Benton, 2004;Farrow, Haycraft, & Blissett, 2015;Puhl & Schwartz, 2003).…”

African-American and Hispanic children's beverage intake: Differences in associations with desire to drink, fathers' feeding practices, and weight concerns

“…For instance, use of food as reward is more prevalent among mothers in low-income families (Hendy & Williams, 2012). However, others report that use of food as a reward is associated with high maternal education as was the case for increasing African-American fathers’ education and use of food as a reward in the current study (Raaijmakers et al, 2014). …”

“…Among young children up to 12 months in age, sweetened drinks were more likely to be offered as a reward or as a treat for good behavior (Hoare et al, 2014). Similarly, sweets (i.e., candy, ice cream), nuts, and savory snacks were more frequently offered as rewards to children aged 4-12 years (Raaijmakers, Gevers, Teuscher, Kremers, & van Assema, 2014). Although a number of studies have described parents’ use of unhealthy foods or beverages in the context of instrumental and emotional feeding, associations have been predominantly reported by mothers.…”

Can Parenting Practices Explain the Differences in Beverage Intake According to Socio-Economic Status: The Toybox-Study

“…However, instrumental and emotional feeding are not always related. It would be interesting to study this parenting practice in more detail by looking into differences between using food in between meals to regulate a child’s emotions (emotional feeding) and using food as a reward or withholding food as a punishment (instrumental feeding) [31]. Awareness and lack of self-efficacy may be regarded as precursors of parenting practices instead of actual parental behaviours.…”