Learned Experience and Resource Dilution: Conceptualizing Sibling Influences on Parents’ Feeding Practices

Abstract

Studies from diverse cultures report mixed results in the relationship between birth order and risk for obesity. Explanations may thus lie in the postnatal period when growth is shaped by the family environment, including parental feeding practices, which may be affected by siblings. Consistent with a family systems perspective, we describe two processes that may explain birth order effects on parental feeding practices and child outcomes: learned experience and resource dilution. Parents learn from experience when earlier-born children influence their parents’ knowledge, expectations, and behavior toward later-born siblings through their behaviors and characteristics—which can have both positive and negative implications. Resource dilution is a process whereby the birth of each child limits the time, attention and other resources parents have to devote to any one of their children. The goal of this review is to provide a theoretical basis for examining potential sibling influences on parental responsive feeding toward developing recommendations for future research and practice aimed at preventing obesity throughout family systems.

Food-related parenting practices and styles in households with sibling children: A scoping review

“…Exploring how parents implement feeding practices and styles across multiple children may provide a window into the broader operation of families as socialising systems. Feeding interventions may then be designed to acknowledge how siblings affect the feeding practices and styles that are experienced by a child (Ruggiero, McHale, Paul, & Savage, 2021). While interventions currently exist to support parents in managing sibling behaviours (Pickering & Sanders, 2016), they are yet to be adapted to the context of obesity prevention.…”

“…Therefore, further research should seek to identify the contexts and consequences associated with differential feeding. As underpinned by family systems theory and outlined in a recent publication by Ruggiero et al (2021), other processes through which siblings influence responsive feeding in families should also be explored, including resource dilution and learnt experience, to further elucidate the complexities in feeding in households with siblings.…”

Comparing relationships of food parenting practices and concern for child weight between siblings

“…The rules, routines, and interactions families establish can impact family patterns (Pratt & Skelton, 2018). Parents learn lessons from their experiences feeding their first child that could influence their behaviors with their second child (Ruggiero et al, 2021). Additionally, as parents have more children, they must divide their time between children and that could impact how they feed their children and the rules and routines the family experiences (Ruggiero et al, 2021).…”

“…Parents learn lessons from their experiences feeding their first child that could influence their behaviors with their second child (Ruggiero et al, 2021). Additionally, as parents have more children, they must divide their time between children and that could impact how they feed their children and the rules and routines the family experiences (Ruggiero et al, 2021). Older siblings can serve as role models for their younger siblings or even start mimicking the parents' food parenting practices directed at their younger sibling (Mosli et al, 2016).…”

“…To influence long‐term change in an individual in the family, family systems theory suggests that change is best targeted at the family level (Pratt & Skelton, 2018). Therefore, it is important for future interventions to consider how food parenting practices used for children and siblings may interact to alter how a child experiences food parenting practices (Ruggiero et al, 2021).…”