Associations between father–mother food parenting practices and children’s dietary intake

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the number of parents using high levels of structure or coercive control food parenting practices is associated with children's dietary intake. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of father-mother dyads from the Fathers & Families cohort study. Fathers and mothers independently reported their food parenting practices and child's dietary intake. Multivariate logistic regression models estimated associations between the number of parents (0, 1 or 2) using high structure or coercive control practices and children's intake of fruit, vegetables, fast food and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), adjusting for demographics and recruitment site. SETTING: United States. PARTICIPANTS: 474 father-mother dyads with a child aged 2-6 years. RESULTS: Structure, but not coercive control, was positively associated with vegetable intake. Compared with none, having one parent report high structure increased the odds of children consuming vegetables > once/day (adjusted OR (aOR) = 2·09; 95 % CI: (1·06, 4·54)); associations were stronger when both parents reported high structure. Structure was also associated with lower fast food and SSB intake frequency. Compared with none, having one parent report high structure increased the odds of children consuming fast food < once/week (aOR = 1·79; 95 % CI: (1·23, 2·62)) and limiting SSB to < once/week (aOR = 1·52; 95 % CI: (1·03, 2·23)); associations were stronger when both parents reported high structure. Compared with none, high coercive control by one (aOR = 0·69; 95 % CI: (0·49, 0·96)) or both parents (aOR = 0·57; 95 % CI: (0·33, 1·00)) was associated with lower odds of limiting SSB to < once/week. CONCLUSIONS: Children's dietary patterns were healthiest when both parents used structure-based food parenting practices. Coercive control from one or both parents was associated with greater SSB intake frequency.