Examining the Moderating Effect of Parenting Style and Parental Guidance on Children’s Beliefs about Food: A Test of the Parenting Style-as-Context Model

Abstract

Research examining the effect of parenting practices on child food consumption has often neglected the role in which global aspects of parenting – such as parenting style – play in shaping children’s dietary behaviors. To address this gap, the parenting style-as-context model was used to examine the moderating effects of parenting style – defined as the perceived emotional climate communicated to children by their parents – on the association between parental guidance of food consumption and children’s beliefs surrounding food. A cross-sectional survey of 1,113 child/adolescent participants between the ages of 9 and 18 was conducted to test the theoretical propositions derived from the parenting style-as-context model. Results suggest desirable relationships between different dimensions of parental guidance of food consumption on children’s beliefs surrounding foods were stronger among children who were under an authoritative parenting style compared to other parenting styles. The results offer some support for the parenting style-as-context model and has theoretical and practical implications for research targeted at understanding the role parents play in inculcating healthy dietary habits among children.

Acknowledgments

I thank Professor May O. Lwin and Professor Shirley S. Ho for their mentorship throughout the study; Jeremy R. H. Sng, Jaishree Teresa, and Divya Bhardwaj for their help in data collection; and the principals, teachers, staff, and parents who helped facilitate the data collection at their schools. I would also like to thank the participating students, who so willingly agreed to contribute to this study with their time.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Significant main effects were found for active parental guidance and attitude toward consuming fruits (b = .20, p < .001), perceived norms toward consuming fruits (b = .49, p < .001), and perceived behavioral control toward consuming fruits (b = .25, p < .001). Uninvolved and authoritarian parenting styles were also significantly related to attitude toward consuming fruits (b = −.19, p< .01; b = −.13, p< .05) compared to an authoritative parenting style. For the covariates, females were more likely to hold positive attitude (b = .21, p < .001) and perceived behavioral control toward consuming fruits (b = .14, p< .01).

² Significant main effects were found for the relationship between promotion-focused restrictive guidance and attitude (b = .08, p < .05) and perceived norms toward consuming fruits (b = .25, p < .001). In this model, uninvolved and authoritarian parenting style were significantly related to attitude (b = −.30, p< .001; b = −.24, p < .001), perceived norms (b = −.31, p < .001; b = −.16, p < .05), and perceived behavioral control toward consuming fruits (b = −.24, p < .001; b = −.21, p < .01), when compared with authoritative parenting style.

³ Significant main effects were found for active parental guidance and attitude (b = .28, p < .001), perceived norms (b = .43, p< .001), and perceived behavioral control (b = .32, p< .001) toward consuming vegetables. Uninvolved parenting style was also significantly related to attitude (b = −.26, p< .001), perceived norms (b = −.26, p< .001), and perceived behavioral control (b = −.25, p< .01) toward consuming vegetables, when compared to authoritative parenting. Authoritarian parenting style was significantly related to perceived norms (b = .16, p< .05) when compared with authoritative parenting. For the covariates, females were more likely to hold more positive attitude (b = .19, p< .001), perceived norms (b = .16, p< .01), and perceived behavioral control (b = .24, p< .001) toward consuming vegetables.

⁴ Significant main effects were found between promotion-focused restrictive guidance and attitude (b = .18, p< .001), perceived norms (b = .30, p< .001), and perceived behavioral control (b = .23, p< .01) toward consuming vegetables. Uninvolved parenting style was significantly and negatively related to attitude (b = −.35, p< .001), perceived norms (b = −.38, p< .001), and perceived behavioral control (b = −.34, p< .001) toward consuming vegetables when compared with authoritative parenting. Additionally, authoritarian parenting style was significantly related to attitude toward consuming vegetables (b = −.20, p < .01) when compared with authoritative parenting.

⁵ Significant main effects were found between active parental guidance and attitude (b = −.24, p < .01), perceived norms toward consuming SSB (b = −.20, p < .01). Indulgent parenting style positively and significantly predicted perceived behavioral control toward consuming SSB (b = .30, p< .01). For the covariates, girls tended to have lower attitude (b = −.20, p < .001) and perceived norms (b = −.18, p < .01) toward consuming SSB. Age was also significantly related to perceived norms (b = .02, p < .05) and perceived behavioral control (b = .02, p < .05) toward consuming SSB.

⁶ Significant main effects were found between prevention-focused restrictive guidance and attitude (b = −.19, p< .001), perceived norms (b = −.16, p< .01), and perceived behavioral control (b = −.30, p< .001) toward consuming SSB. Uninvolved and authoritarian parenting styles were significantly associated with attitude (b = .19, p < .05; b = .16, p < .05) and perceived norms (b = .19, p < .05; b = .19, p < .05), toward consuming SSB when compared with authoritative parenting. Indulgent parenting style was significantly associated with perceived behavioral control toward consuming SSB when compared with authoritative parenting (b = .24, p < .05).

⁷ We used both a median and tertile split approach but reported the median split results as it provided a more complete sample and greater statistical power. The results were somewhat similar using both approaches, with the most notable differences being discussed in this section.

⁸ While parenting styles are considered by some to be more stable than parenting practices, previous research has suggested that certain parenting behaviors which contribute to broader parenting styles is amenable to change after an intervention (Fujiwara, Kato, & Sanders, 2011; Morawska, Tometzki, & Sanders, 2014; Sumargi, Sofronoff, & Morawska, 2014).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nanyang Technological University WKWSCI Competitive 3K Grant.