Vegetable-Related Parenting Practices, Parenting Style and Preschoolers' Vegetable Consumption: Cross-Sectional Associations and the Moderating Role of Parenting Style

Abstract

The specific food parenting practices used by parents, along with the broader parenting style that reflects the general characteristics of their approach to parenting, may influence children's vegetable consumption. We examined cross-sectional associations of parenting style constructs (nurturance, structure, behavioural control, inappropriate control, and overprotection) and vegetable-related parenting practices (VPP) (‘encouragement and modelling’, ‘child involvement’, ‘enhanced availability and autonomy support’) with 3–6-year-old children's vegetable consumption. Additionally, we explored if parenting style moderated the associations between the VPPs and children's vegetable consumption. The sample included 767 Finnish children and their parents. Parents reported parenting style using an item-reduced Comprehensive General Parenting Questionnaire and the use of VPPs. Three-day food records were used to assess children's vegetable consumption. Data was analysed using linear mixed-effects models. If parents scored higher on ‘enhanced availability and autonomy support’, their children consumed more vegetables (B = 0.249, 95% CI = 0.128; 0.371). Regarding parenting style, if parents scored higher on overprotection, their children consumed less vegetables (B = −0.223, 95% CI = −0.384; −0.062). Additionally, two exploratory moderation effects by parenting style were found: parents' higher score on ‘child involvement’ was associated with children consuming more vegetables only when parents were lower on overprotection or nurturance. Although further research is needed to understand the details of the role of parenting style in children's vegetable consumption, our results suggest that overprotection might be an important factor, and parenting style as a context should be considered when targeting parenting practices to promote children's vegetable consumption.