Fathers and their children feeding and eating behaviors: a possible standardized observational/interactional tool

Laura Vismara

;Cristina Sechi;Loredana Lucarelli

2023-01-01

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Abstract

Introduction: Evidence is mounting that paternal involvement may have a short, medium, and long-term impact on their child’s functioning. Feeding interactions through mutual exchanges forge attachment bonds at the core of healthy development. So far, most studies analyze mother–nfant/toddler interactions. However, over half of the fathers share responsibilities in family meals and child feeding with mothers and a minority of them are primarily in charge of feeding. Indeed, paternal highly controlling parenting styles and feeding practices seem to be associated with overweight in their children. Instead, pressure to eat has been related with lower child body weight, the child’s slowness in eating and emotional undereating. Definitely, fathers’ praise and modeling of healthy eating behaviors is linked with lower nutritional risk. In addition, fathers seem to lack in monitoring their child's eating in comparison with mothers and they are not as much capable to acknowledge their child’s distress signals. Still, other studies found no significant differences in the feeding practices between mothers and fathers. Methods: These contradictory findings may depend from the lack of specific and validated measures for fathers; indeed, most of the applied observational instruments were originally designed to assess mother-child interactions. In a sample of 142 children ranging in age from 1 month to three years and their fathers (age range from 22 to 51 years; M ge = 36.9 years, SD = 5.8 years), the current study tested the reliability of the Feeding Scale. Results: Analyses showed satisfactory internal consistency, confirming that the Feeding Scales is reliable in the evaluation of father-infant/toddler feeding interactions. In additions, findings showed significant effects of the child’s age and significant gender differences. Conclusions: The Feeding Scale is a promising observational procedure to study the role of fathers in the development of feeding behaviors of their infants and toddlers.