The relationship between COVID-related parenting stress, nonresponsive feeding behaviors, and parent mental health

Abstract

has disrupted the lives of families across the United States and all over the world. Stress is known to have a negative impact on parent-child feeding interactions; hence, the purpose of this study is to examine how COVID-related parenting stress, which was measured using a newly developed scale, is related to parent mental health, nonresponsive feeding, and children's self-regulation of eating. 119 parents of children ages 2-7 years old filled out questions about COVID-related parenting stress, mental health, nonresponsive feeding behaviors, and children's self-regulation of eating. A series of multiple regressions were run to predict parent anxiety and psychological distress from COVID-related parenting stress. COVID-related parenting stress was found to be a significant predictor of both parent anxiety and psychological distress. When COVID-related parenting stress was further broken down into COVID-Related Job/Financial Security Stress and COVID-Related Family Safety/Stability Stress, COVID-Related Job/Financial Security Stress predicted psychological distress while COVID-Related Family Safety/Stability Stress predicted parent anxiety. Moderation analyses were also run to test the difference across the parents of children under 5 years of age and those of children who were 5 years of age and older regarding the association of COVID-related parenting stress and either parent anxiety or psychological distress. There was no significant difference across age. Lastly, COVID-related parenting stress and nonresponsive feeding practices were simultaneously entered into a multiple regression to predict children's self-regulation of eating, and COVID-related parenting stress and parent distrust in appetite were both found to decrease children's ability to self-regulate energy intake. Based on findings from this study, researchers interested in improving children's self-regulation of eating and long-term health outcomes should continue to target the reduction of nonresponsive parent feeding behaviors, but they should also aim to look beyond specific parent feeding behaviors by attempting to help parents manage stressors in their lives.

Variation of parental feeding practices during the COVID-2019 pandemic: a systematic review

“…This is consistent with previous studies [17,41]. Stress can effectively interfere with parents' ability to observe children's behavior and limit children's ability to regulate their energy intake [29]. Coercive control practices, for example, can reduce vegetable intake over time [42].…”

“…The articles by Caroline et al [25] and Jansende et al [21]. were classified as high quality by the NOS standard, whereas the remaining six articles [26][27][28][29][30][31] were classified as medium quality (in Additional File 1). Table 1 shows the study's characteristics and significant findings.…”

“…A total of six studies referred to elements of parental coercive control practices. Four studies found increased parental usage of restrictive practices and pressure to eat [26,27], two of which concluded that the negative effects of COVID-19 on parents and distress would increase feeding restrictions and pressure to eat [25,29]. According to a longitudinal study [28], parental restricted usage increased from before COVID-19 to T1 (May 2020) and returned to pre-pandemic levels at T2 (September 2020).…”

Impact of Home Confinement due to COVID-19 Outbreaks on Stress Levels and Coping Patterns of Mothers and their Children’s Behaviors

“…Regarding the relationship between mothers' socio-demographic characteristics and total stressors facing them and total coping scores, the current study showed statistically significant differences were found between mothers' work, family income, total stressors facing them, and total coping scores. (Frankel et al, 2021) who conducted a study about the relationship between COVID-related parenting stress, nonresponsive feeding behaviors, and parent mental health was congruent with the present finding. From the researchers' point of view, parents will experience a higher stress level if they were working during the pandemic, which may best be explained by the need to juggle multiple roles, such as being a caregiver, educator, and employee, simultaneous.…”

Maternal self-conception and mental wellbeing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative interview study through the lens of “intensive mothering” and “ideal worker” ideology

“…Evidence shows that parenting stress and exhaustion also increased, especially for mothers of young children ( 5 ). Consistent with pre-pandemic data, parenting stress and exhaustion were significant predictors of adverse mental health ( 6 – 8 ).…”