Relationship between Family Racial/Ethnic Backgrounds, Parenting Practices and Styles, and Adolescent Eating Behaviors

Lillie Monroe-Lord, Alex Anderson, Blake L. Jones, Rickelle Richards, Marla Reicks, Carolyn Gunther, Jinan Banna, Glade L. Topham, Karina R. Lora, Siew Sun Wong, Miriam Ballejos, Laura Hopkins, Azam Ardakani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Obesity is more prevalent among racial minority children in the United States, as compared to White children. Parenting practices can impact the development of children’s eating behaviors and habits. In this study, we investigated the relationships among racial/ethnic backgrounds, parenting practices and styles, and eating behaviors in adolescents. Fifty-one parent–adolescent dyads were interviewed to characterize parenting practices and styles, as well as the consumption of dairy, fruits and vegetables, and unhealthy snacks. Height and weight were measured to calculate parent BMI and adolescent BMI-for-age percentiles. Three parenting practice categories—modeling, authoritative, and authoritarian—were found to be related to race/ethnicity. A higher score in authoritarian parenting practices was related to higher BMI percentiles among African American adolescents, whereas a higher score in monitoring practices was related to lower BMI percentiles among non-Hispanic White adolescents. Modeling, reasoning, and monitoring led to higher consumption of fruits and vegetables among adolescents; however, the consumption of unhealthy snacks was higher with rule-setting and lower with reasoning and authoritative practices. Finally, an analysis of the relationships between environmental factors and snack intake showed that adolescents consumed significantly more unhealthy snacks when performing other activities while eating. In conclusion, the findings from this study suggest that families’ racial heritages are related to their parenting practices, BMI percentiles, and their adolescents’ food consumption and eating behaviors. The results of this study can be used to develop and improve adolescent nutrition education and interventions with consideration of their racial/ethnic backgrounds.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number7388
JournalInternational journal of environmental research and public health
Volume19
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: This research project was funded by the Agricultural Experiment Station with funds from the Hatch Act to land-grant universities for multistate research projects and other university funds. The funder had no role in the design of this study; in the collection, analyses, and interpretation of data; or in the writing of the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • adolescent eating behavior
  • adolescent–parent dyads
  • dairy
  • fruits and vegetables
  • parenting practices
  • race/ethnicity
  • unhealthy snacks

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Relationship between Family Racial/Ethnic Backgrounds, Parenting Practices and Styles, and Adolescent Eating Behaviors'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this