An exploration of the momentary mechanisms of controlling food-related parenting practices among mothers and fathers of preschool children

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT It is known that parents have the opportunity to significantly influence their children's weight status; however, limitations exist within the literature exploring the use and impact of food-related parenting practices on child weight status. Specifically, the bulk of research exploring the impact of food-related parenting practices on weight-related outcomes has: focused on highly controlling parenting practices - failing to account for the impact of a much broader scope of food parenting; relied on retrospective measures of food-related parenting practices; and focused on parent's “usual” use of specific food-related parenting practices – failing to account for potentially important differences across shorter time frames (within- or between- day) or across contexts. Finally, momentary mechanisms that influence the use of particular food-related parenting practices remain unclear. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a novel method that utilizes hand-held devices to capture information on behaviors as they unfold in their natural environment, moment-by-moment, to capture dynamic changes in behavior over time and across contexts. Use of EMA could provide an opportunity to elucidate temporal relationships between momentary variables (e.g., stress, child behavior) and use of food-related parenting practices. The proposed mixed-methods study will utilize in-depth interviews to identify a broad scope of food-related parenting practices and the momentary factors that influence them. Parent responses will then inform the development - and adaptation of measures for use within an EMA protocol. Finally, an EMA study (n=50) will explore within- and between-parent fluctuations in food-related parenting practices and will identify momentary influences on parents' use of food-related parenting practices. Knowledge gained and data collected from the proposed research will lay the foundation for a future R-01 application focused on leveraging EMA embedded within a longitudinal study to gain a comprehensive understanding of the use and impact of food-related parenting practices on weight-related outcomes in children. This proposed research also fits within the broader context of the applicant's career development goals. The overarching goal of this 4-year training program is to establish the candidate as an independent investigator focused on pediatric obesity prevention. Specific training activities include: gaining experience in data collection, management and interpretation of data collected via EMA; developing the multi-level modeling statistical analysis skills necessary to analyze data collected via EMA; and improving content area knowledge child development and the role of parent-child interactions in the development of eating behaviors. Together, the proposed training aims and research activities will allow the candidate to, 1) build on her previous training and research which, to date, has focused on utilizing traditional survey methods to explore the role of parents in adolescent weight-related outcomes, and 2) expand her expertise to include novel EMA data collection methods and associated analytical skills, and a focus on understanding the development of obesity in young children.