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Influences on the diet quality of pre-school children: Importance of maternal psychological characteristics

Influences on the diet quality of pre-school children: Importance of maternal psychological characteristics
Influences on the diet quality of pre-school children: Importance of maternal psychological characteristics
OBJECTIVE:To test the hypothesis that maternal psychological profiles relate to children's quality of diet.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. Mothers provided information on their health-related psychological factors and aspects of their child's mealtime environment. Children's diet quality was assessed using an FFQ from which weekly intakes of foods and a diet Z-score were calculated. A high score described children with a better quality diet. Cluster analysis was performed to assess grouping of mothers based on psychological factors. Mealtime characteristics, describing how often children ate while sitting at a table or in front of the television, their frequency of takeaway food consumption, maternal covert control and food security, and children's quality of diet were examined, according to mothers' cluster membership.

SUBJECTS: Mother-child pairs (n 324) in the Southampton Initiative for Health. Children were aged 2-5 years.

SETTING: Hampshire, UK.

RESULTS: Two main clusters were identified. Mothers in cluster 1 had significantly higher scores for all psychological factors than mothers in cluster 2 (all P < 0.001). Clusters were termed 'more resilient' and 'less resilient', respectively. Children of mothers in the less resilient cluster ate meals sitting at a table less often (P = 0.03) and watched more television (P = 0.01). These children had significantly poorer-quality diets (β = -0.61, 95% CI -0.82, -0.40, P  ≤ 0.001). This association was attenuated, but remained significant after controlling for confounding factors that included maternal education and home/mealtime characteristics (P = 0.006).

CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that mothers should be offered psychological support as part of interventions to improve children's quality of diet.
maternal self-efficacy, pre school, diet, cluster analysis, mealtime environment
1368-9800
2001-2010
Jarman, M.
aad2a572-c3cf-49fd-89e9-fd188cb56d24
Inskip, H.M.
5fb4470a-9379-49b2-a533-9da8e61058b7
Ntani, G.
d0eda197-ad47-426f-a791-f0057e812e32
Cooper, C.
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Baird, J.
f4bf2039-6118-436f-ab69-df8b4d17f824
Robinson, S.M.
ba591c98-4380-456a-be8a-c452f992b69b
Barker, M.E.
374310ad-d308-44af-b6da-515bf5d2d6d2
Jarman, M.
aad2a572-c3cf-49fd-89e9-fd188cb56d24
Inskip, H.M.
5fb4470a-9379-49b2-a533-9da8e61058b7
Ntani, G.
d0eda197-ad47-426f-a791-f0057e812e32
Cooper, C.
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Baird, J.
f4bf2039-6118-436f-ab69-df8b4d17f824
Robinson, S.M.
ba591c98-4380-456a-be8a-c452f992b69b
Barker, M.E.
374310ad-d308-44af-b6da-515bf5d2d6d2

Jarman, M., Inskip, H.M., Ntani, G., Cooper, C., Baird, J., Robinson, S.M. and Barker, M.E. (2015) Influences on the diet quality of pre-school children: Importance of maternal psychological characteristics. Public Health Nutrition, 18 (11), 2001-2010. (doi:10.1017/S136898001400250X). (PMID:25409750)

Record type: Article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:To test the hypothesis that maternal psychological profiles relate to children's quality of diet.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. Mothers provided information on their health-related psychological factors and aspects of their child's mealtime environment. Children's diet quality was assessed using an FFQ from which weekly intakes of foods and a diet Z-score were calculated. A high score described children with a better quality diet. Cluster analysis was performed to assess grouping of mothers based on psychological factors. Mealtime characteristics, describing how often children ate while sitting at a table or in front of the television, their frequency of takeaway food consumption, maternal covert control and food security, and children's quality of diet were examined, according to mothers' cluster membership.

SUBJECTS: Mother-child pairs (n 324) in the Southampton Initiative for Health. Children were aged 2-5 years.

SETTING: Hampshire, UK.

RESULTS: Two main clusters were identified. Mothers in cluster 1 had significantly higher scores for all psychological factors than mothers in cluster 2 (all P < 0.001). Clusters were termed 'more resilient' and 'less resilient', respectively. Children of mothers in the less resilient cluster ate meals sitting at a table less often (P = 0.03) and watched more television (P = 0.01). These children had significantly poorer-quality diets (β = -0.61, 95% CI -0.82, -0.40, P  ≤ 0.001). This association was attenuated, but remained significant after controlling for confounding factors that included maternal education and home/mealtime characteristics (P = 0.006).

CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that mothers should be offered psychological support as part of interventions to improve children's quality of diet.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 5 October 2014
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 November 2014
Published date: August 2015
Keywords: maternal self-efficacy, pre school, diet, cluster analysis, mealtime environment
Organisations: Faculty of Medicine

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 387230
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/387230
ISSN: 1368-9800
PURE UUID: f3c06862-0fc6-45ef-985b-0d7191ad95d2
ORCID for H.M. Inskip: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8897-1749
ORCID for C. Cooper: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3510-0709
ORCID for J. Baird: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4039-4361
ORCID for S.M. Robinson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1766-7269
ORCID for M.E. Barker: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2976-0217

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Date deposited: 15 Feb 2016 10:22
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:56

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Contributors

Author: M. Jarman
Author: H.M. Inskip ORCID iD
Author: G. Ntani
Author: C. Cooper ORCID iD
Author: J. Baird ORCID iD
Author: S.M. Robinson ORCID iD
Author: M.E. Barker ORCID iD

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