Reasons Low-Income Parents Offer Snacks to Children: How Feeding Rationale Influences Snack Frequency and Adherence to Dietary Recommendations

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Nutrients
• Personal Author:
  Blaine, Rachel E. ; Fisher, Jennifer Orlet ; Taveras, Elsie M. ; Geller, Alan C. ; Rimm, Eric B. ; Land, Thomas ; Perkins, Meghan ; Davison, Kirsten K.
• Description:
  Although American children snack more than ever before, the parental role in promoting snacking is not well understood. In 2012-2013 at baseline in an intervention study to prevent childhood obesity in low-income Massachusetts communities, n = 271 parents of children aged 2-12 years completed surveys regarding nutritive and non-nutritive reasons they offered children snacks, demographics, and dietary factors. An analysis of variance demonstrated that parents reported offering snacks (mean/week; standard deviation (SD)) for nutritive reasons like promoting growth (x̄ = 2.5; SD 2.2) or satisfying hunger (x̄ = 2.4; SD 2.1) almost twice as often as non-nutritive reasons like keeping a child quiet (x̄ = 0.7; SD 1.5) or celebrating events/holidays (x̄ = 0.8; SD 1.1). Parents reported giving young children (2-5 years) more snacks to reward behavior (1.9 vs. 1.1, p < 0.001), keep quiet (1.0 vs. 0.5, p < 0.001), and celebrate achievements (1.7 vs. 1.0, p < 0.001) than parents of older children (6-12 years). Multivariable logistic regression models were used to obtain adjusted odds ratios, which indicated reduced child adherence to dietary recommendations when parents offered snacks to reward behavior (Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.83; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.70-0.99), celebrate events/holidays (OR = 0.72; 95% CI 0.52-0.99), or achievements (OR = 0.82; 95% CI 0.68-0.98). Parental intentions around child snacking are likely important targets for obesity prevention efforts.
• Subjects:
  Article Child Feeding Childhood Obesity Prevention Parenting Snacks
• Source:
  Nutrients. 2015; 7(7):5982-5999.
• Pubmed ID:
  26197335
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4517042
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  T32 CA 0900/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; U18DP003370/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States
• Volume:
  7
• Issue:
  7
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:a9b724eefd5dffeed484710185b9fa2843e6fed1fcd592f094fad4f27cb8ba5d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/34093/cdc_34093_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 345.53 KB ]