Retrospective reports of coercive control food parenting practices during childhood are related to eating behaviors in adulthood: A latent profile analysis

Abstract

Food parenting practices are parents' actions that influence their child's eating habits and food intake. Coercive control food parenting practices are behaviors that seek to satisfy parental desires concerning their child's eating. These practices (including emotional regulation, pressure to eat, food as a reward, restriction for health, and restriction for weight) can have detrimental effects on children's eating behaviors and diet quality. Using a person-centered approach, the present study examined whether experiencing controlling food-related parenting practices as a child relates to eating behaviors, food liking, and food intake in adulthood. Participants were 441 French-Canadian adults (50.2 % female; mean age = 42.7 years). A latent profile analysis (LPA) empirically identified three subgroups of individuals based on patterns of controlling food-related practices used by their parents during childhood. The “high control” subgroup (n = 47) reported more emotional eating, cognitive restraint, and disinhibition than the “moderate control with restriction for health” subgroup (n = 200), which reported higher levels of these behaviors than the “low control” subgroup (n = 194). The “high control” subgroup also reported less intuitive eating and a higher intake frequency of both savory and sweet foods than participants of the two other profiles, which did not differ from each other on these outcomes. Interestingly, liking for savory and sweet foods did not significantly differ among the three groups. Overall, results indicate that exposure to less controlling food parenting practices during childhood is associated with more positive eating behaviors and healthier food intake in adulthood.