Abstract Who do mothers and children believe is in charge of what and how much a child should eat? We explored beliefs about the scope of parental authority over food decisions, by integrating quantitative and qualitative methods. Mothers and their 5- or 7-year-old children responded separately to 4 hypothetical scenarios where a child disagreed with a mother who requested them to: eat a healthy food, eat an unhealthy food, eat an equally healthy but different food, and eat a different amount of food. Mothers were also interviewed about actual family food disagreements and resolution strategies. In healthy scenarios both mothers and children viewed what children ate as the mothers’ decision; however, in all other scenarios mothers viewed what to eat as the child’s choice. In contrast, children more often judged food decisions as up to the parent, only reliably categorizing the unhealthy scenario as the child’s choice. Justifications differed by scenario, but overall children were more focused on health and parental authority while mothers often discussed children’s personal choice. The proportion of mothers’ reported use of rule-like strategies for real-life food conflicts was correlated with children’s authority-based answers. No other self-reported strategies were related to children’s reasoning patterns. Exploratory analysis showed mothers’ political position also predicted children’s decisions, with children of conservative parents more likely to focus on authority.

中文翻译：

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谁来决定？母亲和孩子对食物分歧的看法

摘要 母亲和孩子认为谁负责孩子应该吃什么和吃多少？我们通过整合定量和定性方法探索了关于父母对食物决定的权威范围的信念。母亲和她们 5 岁或 7 岁的孩子分别对 4 种假设情景做出回应，即孩子不同意母亲的要求：吃健康的食物，吃不健康的食物，吃同样健康但不同的食物，以及吃不同数量的食物。母亲们还接受了关于实际家庭食物分歧和解决策略的采访。在健康的情况下，母亲和孩子都认为孩子吃什么是母亲的决定；然而，在所有其他情况下，母亲都将吃什么视为孩子的选择。相比之下，孩子们更经常地判断食物的决定取决于父母，只有可靠地将不健康的场景归类为孩子的选择。理由因场景而异，但总体而言，孩子们更关注健康和父母的权威，而母亲则经常讨论孩子的个人选择。母亲报告在现实生活中的食物冲突中使用类似规则的策略的比例与儿童基于权威的答案相关。没有其他自我报告的策略与儿童的推理模式有关。探索性分析表明，母亲的政治立场也能预测孩子的决定，保守父母的孩子更有可能关注权威。但总体而言，孩子们更关注健康和父母的权威，而母亲则经常讨论孩子的个人选择。母亲报告在现实生活中的食物冲突中使用类似规则的策略的比例与儿童基于权威的答案相关。没有其他自我报告的策略与儿童的推理模式有关。探索性分析表明，母亲的政治立场也能预测孩子的决定，保守父母的孩子更有可能关注权威。但总体而言，孩子们更关注健康和父母的权威，而母亲则经常讨论孩子的个人选择。母亲报告在现实生活中的食物冲突中使用类似规则的策略的比例与儿童基于权威的答案相关。没有其他自我报告的策略与儿童的推理模式有关。探索性分析表明，母亲的政治立场也能预测孩子的决定，保守父母的孩子更有可能关注权威。