Like parent, like child!
Published
Parents’ eating habits have a direct influence on how children respond to food, according to new research from Aston University.
It suggests that parents who use food as a comfort have children who behave similarly and that healthy eating habits can be shaped in children both by how parents eat as well as how they feed their children
Participants in the study were asked to assess their own eating behaviour and try to identify associations between those behaviours and those of their children. The research team grouped parents into four eating styles: ‘typical eating’, ‘avid eating’, ‘emotional eating’ and ‘avoidant eating’.
Typical eaters, who made up 41 per cent of the sample, have no extreme behaviours. Avid eaters (37 per cent) have strong food approach traits, such as eating in response to food cues in the environment and their emotions, rather than hunger signals. Emotional eaters (15 per cent) also eat in response to emotion, but don’t enjoy food as much as avid eaters. Avoidant eaters (5 per cent) are extremely selective about food and have a low enjoyment of eating.
Direct links between child and parent behaviour were particularly clear in parents with avid or avoidant eating behaviours, whose children tended to have similar eating behaviour. Parents who had avid or emotional eating styles were more likely to use food to soothe or comfort a child, who then in turn displayed avid or emotional eating traits. Where parents with avid or emotional eating traits provided a balanced and varied range of foods, the child was less likely to display the same behaviour.
Lead researcher Dr Abigail Pickard says: ‘Parents are a key influence in children’s eating behaviour but equally, parents have the perfect opportunity to encourage a balanced diet and healthy eating from a young age. It’s important to establish how a parent’s eating style is associated with their children’s eating style and what factors could be modified to encourage healthy relationships with food.”
She and the team will now look at ways to support parents to use other ways to regulate emotions, model healthy eating and create a healthy home food environment.
