Abstract
Objective
To determine whether family food and mealtime practices experienced in adolescence
are carried forward into parenthood.
Design
Baseline (Project Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults [EAT]-I) and 15-year follow-up (EAT-IV) survey data from a population-based cohort
study (Project EAT).
Participants
Cohort members identified as parents at follow-up (n = 727). To gain additional data
about the practices of both parents in the household, significant others completed
surveys at EAT-IV (n = 380).
Main Outcome Measure
Frequency of family meals, healthfulness of foods at home, frequency of meals in front
of the television, and expectations of being home for dinner.
Analysis
Linear regression models tested associations between parent food and mealtime practices
reported at baseline and follow-up controlling for demographics.
Results
Healthy and unhealthy home food availability, expectations to be home for dinner,
and eating in front of the television in adolescence predicted similar outcomes 15
years later among female parents (effect sizes range: β = .2–.3; P < .001), and to a lesser extent among males. Families ate more frequent family meals
when either 1 or both parents reported frequent family meals as an adolescent compared
with when neither parent reported frequent family meals as an adolescent.
Conclusions and Implications
It is important to invest in parenting interventions that target healthful family
food and mealtime practices because of the potential long-term impact on their own
children's parenting practices.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 17, 2017
Accepted:
August 22,
2017
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors' conflict of interest disclosures can be found online with this article on www.jneb.org.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.
