Maternal Education Is Associated with Feeding Style

Maternal feeding styles may be influenced by maternal education, with implications for children's dietary quality and adiposity. One-hundred and eighty mothers completed the Parental Feeding Style Questionnaire, which includes scales assessing four aspects of feeding style, ie, control over feeding, emotional feeding, instrumental feeding, and encouragement/prompting to eat. Mothers with higher education had significantly higher scores on control over feeding [F(1,177)=8.79; P=0.003] and significantly lower emotional feeding scores [F(1,177)=7.26; P=0.008] than those with lower education. There were no differences for instrumental feeding or encouragement/prompting to eat (P>0.05). These findings suggest modest but potentially important differences in maternal control and emotional feeding styles by maternal education. Should these feeding characteristics prove salient to childhood diet and weight, this could inform appropriately targeted parental feeding advice.