Comparing parents' and overweight adolescents' reports on parent mealtime actions

Abstract

This study aimed to compare answers given by parents and their adolescent children to the Portuguese version of the Parent Mealtime Action Scale (PMAS) and to assess associations among the reported behaviors. To compare these answers, a cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of 72 patients of the Obesity Clinic of the Division of Nutrology of the Pediatrics Department at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), Brazil. These patients were aged from 10 years to 19 years and 11 months, and their parents or legal guardians also participated. First, parents were interviewed and instructed to answer how often they perform each behavior measured by the PMAS (never, sometimes or always). Next, the same questions were answered by the adolescents. The general linear model (GLM) showed the effects of the interviewees and of the interaction between interviewees and sex. We also observed a triple interaction effect (sex x interviewees x categorized age). The internal reliability of the PMAS was higher for parental answers than for those given by the children. This finding is probably observed because the scale has been developed and validated to evaluate the pattern of parental responses concerning their eating practices during their children's meals. In addition, although parents believe they are engaging in certain behaviors, the effectiveness of these strategies may not be recognized by their children. Very low intraclass correlation coefficients were observed between parents' and children's answers to the original domains of the PMAS (ICC: 0.130-0.578), suggesting that the factorial structure of the PMAS may only be used to assess parental behavior, as it is not sufficiently accurate to assess the children's understanding of parent mealtime actions.

Keywords: Adolescent; Obesity; Parent feeding practices; Parent mealtime action.