The temporal stability of maternal parenting style and child feeding practices: A six-wave longitudinal study

Jeremy C Morales; Reout Arbel; Genevieve F Dunton; Tyler B Mason

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2024.107231

The temporal stability of maternal parenting style and child feeding practices: A six-wave longitudinal study

Appetite. 2024 Apr 1:195:107231. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2024.107231. Epub 2024 Jan 19.

Authors

Jeremy C Morales¹, Reout Arbel², Genevieve F Dunton³, Tyler B Mason⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States. Electronic address: jeremycm@usc.edu.
² Department of Counseling and Human Development, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
³ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
⁴ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States.

PMID: 38246427
PMCID: PMC10950059 (available on 2025-04-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2024.107231

Abstract

Although parenting styles and child feeding practices are conceptualized as distal, static predictors of child eating and weight outcomes, few studies have examined the temporal stability (i.e., change over time) of these parenting measures. Also, parental characteristics, such as mental health or socio-demographics, may make it more or less difficult to sustain consistent parenting behavior. This study examined the temporal stability of parenting styles and child feeding practices and the association between temporal stability indices with maternal sociodemographic and mental health characteristics. The analytic sample included 161 ethnically diverse mothers enrolled in a six-wave bi-annual longitudinal study. During each wave, mothers reported on their parenting styles and child feeding practices using validated self-report questionnaires. Temporal stability indices for parenting styles were moderate for authoritative (ICC = 0.57) and authoritarian (ICC = 0.70) styles, yet high for permissive (ICC = 0.78) styles. Temporal stability scores for child feeding practices were low for discipline (ICC = 0.33), limit setting (ICC = 0.33), monitoring (ICC = 0.36), and pressure to eat (ICC = 0.34); however, restriction (ICC = 0.53) and role modeling of healthy eating were moderate (ICC = 0.73). Greater income and education status were positively associated with stability in authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles, as well as with limit setting, monitoring, role modeling of healthy eating, and pressure to eat feeding practices. Higher anxiety and depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem were negatively associated with permissive parenting styles and role modeling of healthy eating. Findings show that maternal parenting styles and child feeding practices fluctuate over time, and sociodemographic and mental health characteristics are related to stability of some of these parenting styles and behaviors.

Keywords: Child feeding behaviors; Mother-child interaction; Parenting styles; Temporal stability.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Child
Child Behavior / psychology
Feeding Behavior / psychology
Female
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Mothers / psychology
Parenting* / psychology
Parents* / psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding