2 - (SYM 45) Impact of Food Insecurity on Food Parenting Practices, Child Eating Behaviors and Dietary Intake

Food insecurity is associated with poor health outcomes, and is particularly concerning among children, given their high energy needs to support growth. Food insecurity also presents a unique context in which parents engage in food parenting practices; specifically, food insecurity can influence how parents procure, prepare, and provide food to their children as well as parental goals for- and behaviors during- feeding interactions. Showcasing data from Kids EAT! and Family Matters, two population-based observational studies which enrolled preschool and school-aged participants, respectively, this presentation will highlight what is known about the relationship between exposure to food insecurity and use of specific food parenting practices. Data from the extant literature on the relationship between food parenting practices and the development of eating behaviors and disordered eating will be also presented.

Kids EAT! (n=101) baseline findings revealed that parents in food insecure households were more likely to use indulgent food parenting practices, as compared to parents in food secure households. Parents from families who were food secure at baseline and follow-up used significantly higher levels of autonomy support and structure-, and significantly fewer indulgent- food parenting practices, as compared to parents from families who were food insecure at both time points. These results suggest that exposure to persistent food insecurity within families may result in a shift in their approach to mealtime interactions more so than exposure to food insecurity at one time point. 

Family Matters (n= 150), findings indicated that when parents in food insecure households felt stressed or depressed earlier in the day, they were more likely to use restrictive feeding practices, serve less homemade food and more pre-prepared foods at the evening meal the same night. Results also indicated that when parents from food secure households experienced stress, they were more likely to engage in pressure-to-eat feeding practices, serve fast foods at the evening meal, and have children who engage in picky eating behaviors at the evening meal the same night.

Findings from these two studies highlight important differences in food parenting practices used by parents from food secure versus food insecure households. Pathways through which these observed differences in feeding approach could contribute to the development of maladaptive eating behaviors, disordered eating and eating disorders over time will be discussed.