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Original Research
Parenting Style and Family Meals: Cross-Sectional and 5-Year Longitudinal Associations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2010.04.011Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

Research on family meals in the past decade has shown a positive association between family meal frequency and adolescent healthy dietary intake. However, less is known about factors within the home environment, such as parenting style, that may be associated with family meal patterns.

Objective

The purpose of this study is to test cross-sectional and 5-year longitudinal associations between parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful) and the frequency of family meals among adolescents.

Study design

Data were from Project Eating Among Teens, a population-based study comprised of youth from diverse ethnic/racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Two cohorts of adolescents (middle school and high school) completed in-class surveys in 1999 (Time 1) and mailed surveys in 2004 (Time 2). Multiple linear regression models were used to predict mean frequency of family meals at Time 1 and Time 2 from adolescent report of parenting style (both mother and father) at Time 1. Cross-sectional analyses included both adolescent cohorts (n=4,746) and longitudinal analyses included only the younger cohort (n=806) because family meal frequency was not assessed in the older cohort at Time 2.

Results

Cross-sectional results for adolescent girls indicated a positive association between maternal and paternal authoritative parenting style and frequency of family meals. For adolescent boys, maternal authoritative parenting style was associated with more frequent family meals. Longitudinal results indicated that authoritative parenting style predicted higher frequency of family meals 5 years later, but only between opposite sex parent/adolescent dyads.

Conclusions

Future research should identify additional factors within the home environment that are associated with family meal frequency to develop effective interventions that result in increased family meals for youth. Also, future research should investigate the mealtime behaviors of authoritative parents and identify specific behaviors that dietetics practitioners and other health care providers could share with parents of adolescents to help them increase family meal frequency.

Section snippets

Study Design and Population

Data for our study were drawn from Project Eating Among Teens (EAT), a large population-based, longitudinal study of nutrition and weight-related behaviors in adolescents. At Time 1, in EAT-I (1998-1999), 1,608 middle school and 3,074 high school students in 31 Minnesota schools completed in-class surveys and anthropometric measures; all students in selected classrooms were eligible to participate. At Time 1, the mean age±standard deviation was 12.8±0.8 years for the younger and 15.8±0.8 years

Maternal Parenting Style at Time 1

Maternal authoritative style (high responsiveness/high demandingness) was the most common parenting style across sex and cohort (see panel A of Figure 2). For both the younger (P=0.418) and older (P=0.877) cohorts, maternal parenting style did not differ between boys and girls. The prevalence of maternal parenting styles at Time 1 did not differ (P=0.499) between younger and older sons. In contrast, significant differences were found between younger and older girls. Younger girls more often

Discussion

The purpose of this research was to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between parenting style and the frequency of family meals. Cross-sectional results indicated that there is an association between parenting style and the frequency of family meals for both sons and daughters, even after accounting for potential confounding variables (eg, age, SES, and race/ethnicity) and the reciprocal effect each parent may have on the other's parenting style. Maternal and paternal

Conclusions

Authoritative parenting style was found to be associated with, and predicted, the frequency of family meals for adolescents. Future research should continue to look at factors within the home environment that are associated with the frequency of family meals to identify variables that should be taken into account in interventions aimed at increasing the frequency of family meals. For example, research should examine specific behaviors that authoritative parents use during mealtimes. Given

J. M. Berge is an assistant professor, Medical School Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

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  • Cited by (0)

    J. M. Berge is an assistant professor, Medical School Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

    M. Wall is an associate professor, Division of Biostatistics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

    D. Neumark-Sztainer is a professor, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

    N. Larson is a research associate, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

    M. Story is a professor, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

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