The Relationship between Household SNAP Participation, Parent Feeding Styles, and Child Eating Behaviors

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional analysis of the Minnesota Now Everybody Together for Amazing Healthful Kids (NET-Works) study evaluated whether SNAP participation was associated with specific parental feeding styles and child eating behaviors. Associations between parent-reported feeding styles and child eating behaviors and SNAP participation were examined using multiple linear regression analyses and responses from 534 parent/child dyads (49.1% female children, 91.7% female parents). SNAP participation was not associated with specific feeding styles or child eating behaviors when adjusting for food insecurity, timing in SNAP cycle, and other covariates in this large, ethnically and racially diverse sample of predominantly mothers and preschool-aged children. Other factors, such as food insecurity, not SNAP participation, may influence parental feeding and child eating behaviors, and screening by health care providers is recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• SNAP
• parental feeding
• child eating behaviors
• food insecurity
• childhood obesity

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all of our participants in this study, as well as the research coordinators and staff.

Disclosure statement

MOB receives research support from Vivus, Inc.

Data availability statement

Raw data were generated at the University of Minnesota. Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author MOB on request

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health under U01HD068990, with additional support from other members of Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) Consortium (award numbers U01HL103622, U01HL103629, U01HL103620, U01HL103561) from the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health.