Children's food approach and food avoidance are appetitive traits with genetic or biological bases. Nonetheless, parents play a critical role in children's dietary intake through parenting and feeding practices. The present study tested parents' controlling feeding practices (i.e., restriction and pressure to eat) as mediating mechanisms between child appetitive traits and child BMI in an economically and ethnically diverse sample. Participants were 139 children aged 4 to 6 years (51.8% males, M = 4.77 years, SD = 0.84) and their parents. Results showed that restriction and pressure to eat mediated the relation between child food approach or food avoidance and child BMI. Mediation effects did not differ across poverty status or racial/ethnic groups. Also, the type of controlling feeding that parents exert related to children's weight status in diametrically different or opposite ways. Thus, food-related parenting appears to be a promising point of entry for childhood obesity prevention programs. Findings are consistent with a biopsychosocial model of the development of eating and weight in childhood which takes into account both parent and child behavior and characteristics and links child biology and behavior with psychosocial processes and environment.

中文翻译：

---

儿童的食欲特征和体重：父母控制喂养方式作为中介机制的证据。

儿童的饮食方式和避免食物是具有遗传或生物学基础的饮食特征。尽管如此，父母通过父母养育和喂养方式在儿童饮食中起着至关重要的作用。本研究在经济和种族差异的样本中，测试了父母的控制喂养方式（即饮食的限制和压力）作为儿童食欲特征和儿童BMI之间的中介机制。参加者为139名4至6岁的儿童（男性为51.8％，M = 4.77岁，SD = 0.84）及其父母。结果表明，进食限制和进食压力介导了儿童进食方式或避免进食与儿童体重指数之间的关系。调解效果在贫困状况或种族/族裔群体之间没有差异。此外，父母控制饮食的类型与孩子的 的体重状态截然不同或相反。因此，与食物有关的育儿似乎是预防儿童肥胖症计划的有希望的切入点。研究结果与儿童饮食和体重发展的生物社会心理学模型相吻合，该模型考虑了父母和孩子的行为和特征，并将孩子的生物学和行为与社会心理过程和环境联系在一起。