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Eating Behaviors

Volume 40, January 2021, 101475
Eating Behaviors

Maternal self-efficacy is associated with mother-child feeding practices in middle childhood

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2021.101475Get rights and content

Highlights

  • •

    Greater maternal self-efficacy is related to healthier mother-child feeding practices.

  • •

    Child weight, child age, and mother education status influences mother-child feeding practices.

  • •

    Targeting maternal self-efficacy may improve outcomes in comprehensive family interventions.

Abstract

Objective

Maternal self-efficacy (MSE) is a well-established correlate of health outcomes in young children, though little is known about this association in older children. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine how MSE relates to mother-child feeding practices in middle childhood.

Methods

A total of 306 children ages 8–12 (Mean age = 9.72, SD = 0.91, 52.9% female) and their mothers participated in this study. Mothers completed the New General Self-Efficacy Scale and the Child Feeding Questionnaire. A series of hierarchical regression models were used to examine how MSE related to maternal food restriction, maternal pressure to eat, and maternal food monitoring.

Results

After accounting for maternal Body Mass Index (BMI), education, and age, and child Body Mass Index Percentile (BMI%ile) and age within the first step of each regression model, MSE emerged as a significant predictor for maternal restriction of foods (p = .024) and maternal food monitoring (p = .048). MSE was not significantly related to maternal pressure to eat.

Conclusions

This study is the first to establish that higher MSE is significantly related to healthier mother-child feeding practices in middle childhood, providing preliminary justification for enhancing MSE within comprehensive family interventions to support child weight-related health.

Section snippets

Recruitment

Children (ages 8–12 years) and their mothers were recruited through elementary schools. As part of the larger study that included assessment of aerobic fitness in middle childhood, parents were required to complete the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PARQ; Thomas et al., 1992) to identify potential conditions or adverse reactions that participants may encounter if they engaged in vigorous physical activity (e.g., cardiac condition). Children whose parents endorsed any of the items on

Demographics

A total of 326 children ages 8–12 and their participating parent/guardian were recruited; 8 participants were excluded due to failure to meet inclusion criteria, and 12 participants were not included due to having a caregiver other than the mother complete the study questionnaires. Our final sample included 306 participants (Mean age = 9.72, SD = 0.90; 52.9% female; see Table 1 for sample characteristics). We observed small but significant differences in maternal food restriction by grade (F

Discussion

This cross-sectional study examined whether MSE was related to mother-child feeding practices in a sample of children in middle childhood. We observed that higher MSE was associated with mothers being more aware of the types of foods that their child consumed and being less likely to restrict the foods their children ate. Similar findings have been observed in younger children, with greater MSE decreasing the instances of food restriction and increasing parental involvement and structure in the

Funding source

This work was supported by the Brigham Young University Psychology Department Dissertation Award.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Kara M. Duraccio: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Data Curation, Writing - Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing. Kelsey K. Zaugg: Writing - Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing. Katy Nottingham: Writing – Original Draft. Chad D. Jensen: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, Project Administration.

Declaration of competing interest

None.

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