Parenting Styles, Food Parenting Practices, Family Meals, and Weight Status of African American Families

Azam Ardakani; Lillie Monroe-Lord; Dorothy Wakefield; Chimene Castor

doi:10.3390/ijerph20021382

Parenting Styles, Food Parenting Practices, Family Meals, and Weight Status of African American Families

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 12;20(2):1382. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021382.

Authors

Azam Ardakani¹, Lillie Monroe-Lord², Dorothy Wakefield², Chimene Castor¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutritional Sciences, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA.
² Center for Nutrition, Diet and Health, University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC 20008, USA.

Abstract

Parents influence adolescents' weight status through different strategies used in the home environment, including parenting styles (PSs), food parenting practices (FPPs), and family meal frequency. As the prevalence of obesity is higher among African American adolescents, investigation of which parental strategies serve as an adjustable factor for the prevention of obesity is critical. First, this study aims to examine the relationship between the different parenting influences and obesity statuses of both parents and 10-17-year-old adolescents among African American families. Second, it aims to examine the correlation between PSs and FPPs and frequency of family meals. A total of 211 parent-adolescent dyads completed an online survey using Qualtrics. Four PSs (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian, setting rules/expectations, and neglecting) and four FPPs (i.e., monitoring, reasoning, copying, and modeling) were identified for this study, along with family meal frequency. Body mass index (BMI) percentile and BMI were used to assess the obesity status of the adolescents and parents, respectively. No correlation was found between the adolescents' and parents' obesity status and the PSs and FPPs, while the adolescents' BMI percentile was significantly correlated with parental BMI. However, a higher number of family meals decreased the likelihood of obesity among the adolescents to some extend and depended on the type of BMI used. An authoritative PS was the only style related to family meal frequency, while three FPPs, namely, monitoring, reasoning, and modeling, were related to a greater number of family meals in African American families. The findings of this study can be used in the development of parental education workshops/sessions, with consideration of the cultural differences in African American families, and can help parents to adopt the best parenting strategy to promote the healthy weight status of their adolescents.

Keywords: African American; family meal; food parenting practices; obesity; parenting styles; parent–adolescent dyads.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Black or African American*
Family Practice
Feeding Behavior
Humans
Meals
Obesity / epidemiology
Parent-Child Relations
Parenting*
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This research project was funded by the Agriculture Experimental Station with funds from the Hatch Act to land-grant universities for multistate research projects. The funder had no role in the design, collection, analyses, interpretation of data, or writing of the manuscript.