Do Mexican-American Mothers’ Food-Related Parenting Practices Influence Their Children’s Weight and Dietary Intake?

Food-related parenting attitudes are thought to influence children’s dietary intake and weight. The objective of this study was to examine the associations between mothers’ reports of food-related parenting and children’s dietary intake and body mass index (BMI). A sample of 108 Mexican-American fifth-grade children and their mothers were surveyed. Children’s height, weight, and three 24-hour dietary recalls were collected. Mothers reported household food insecurity status and food-related parenting attitudes. Correlational analyses were calculated among dietary intake variables, children’s BMI percentiles, and food-parenting behaviors. Mothers’ pressure on their children to eat was inversely correlated with children’s BMI. In food-insecure families, attitudes toward making healthful foods available were inversely associated with children’s daily energy intake and BMI. In contrast, in food-secure families, attitudes about making healthful foods available were positively associated with children’s fruit intake and percentage energy from fat, and parental modeling of healthful food behaviors was inversely associated with the energy density. In our sample of Mexican-American families, mothers’ food-related parenting was associated with their children’s weight and dietary intake. These associations differed in food-secure and food-insecure households. Overall, pressure to eat was highly associated with children’s weight, but the temporal nature of these relationships cannot be discerned.