The role of parental control and modelling in predicting a child’s diet and relationship with food after they leave home. A prospective study

• Parental modelling and control influence a child’s diet whilst they are at home.
• Little is known about what happens when a child leaves home.
• Data was collected from 93 parent and child dyads in a prospective study.
• Parental behaviour was the best predictor of children’s behaviour after one year.
• Modelling may be a more powerful influence than parental control.

Research indicates that parental control and parental modelling are key factors in shaping a child’s eating behaviour. To date, however, little is known about how these factors influence a child’s diet once they have left home. This prospective study evaluated the extent to which a parent’s own behaviour and their use of control over food whilst their child was still living at home predicted their child’s relationship with food once they had begun to live independently. Parent/child dyads (n = 93) took part in the study. Parents completed baseline measures of parental control practices (overt control, covert control and pressure to eat), their own diet (unhealthy snacks, unhealthy meals, healthy foods) and eating behaviours (emotional, uncontrolled and restrained eating). At one year follow up, once their child had left home, the child completed measures of their own diet and eating behaviours. The results showed a clear role for modelling with concordance between a child’s intake of unhealthy snacks and emotional eating and their parents’ own reports of these behaviours. Furthermore, the child’s intake of healthy foods was also predicted by their parent’s behaviour although there was both concordance and discordance between parents and their children. No role for parental control was found for any measure of diet or eating behaviour. It is concluded that a parent’s own behaviour rather than parental control has a stronger longer lasting influence once a child has left home and that although this mostly involves a child copying their parent’s behaviour (action) at times it also involves the opposite (reaction).