Associations of children's appetitive traits with weight and dietary behaviours in the context of general parenting

Abstract

Background: Individual variations in child weight can be explained by genetic and behavioural susceptibility to obesity. Behavioural susceptibility can be expressed in appetite-related traits, e.g. food responsiveness. Research into such behavioural factors is important, as it can provide starting points for (preventive) interventions.

Objectives: To examine associations of children's appetitive traits with weight and with fruit, snack and sugar-sweetened beverage intake, and to examine whether parenting style interacts with appetite in determining child weight/intake.

Methods: Data were used from 1275 children participating in the INPACT study in 2009-2010, with a mean age of 9 years in 2009. Their height and weight were measured to calculate body mass index (BMI). Parents completed a questionnaire to measure children's appetitive traits, children's dietary intake and parenting style. Child BMI z-scores, fruit, snack and sugar-sweetened beverage intake were regressed on appetitive traits. Moderation by parenting style was tested by adding interaction terms to the regression analyses.

Results: Food-approaching appetitive traits were positively, and food-avoidant appetitive traits were negatively related to child BMI z-scores and to child fruit intake. There were no or less consistent associations for snack and sugar-sweetened beverage intake. Authoritative parenting voided the negative association between food fussiness and fruit intake, while neglecting parenting strengthened the positive association between food-approaching appetitive traits and weight.

Conclusions: Early assessment of appetitive traits could be used to identify children at risk for overweight. As parenting style can moderate the associations between appetitive traits and weight/intake in a favourable way, parents are a promising target group for preventive interventions aimed at influencing the effect of appetitive traits on children.

Figure 1. Significant moderating effects of parenting styles on the longitudinal associations between CEBQ subscales and child intake/child BMI z-scores in 2010.

Moderation testing was performed on significant longitudinal associations between CEBQ scales and (changes in) child intake/child weight (Table 2, column ‘β2010’ and column ‘β2010-2009’). p_{interaction term Figure 1a} = 0.023; p_{interaction term Figure 1b} = 0.082; p_{interaction term Figure 1c} = 0.018; p_{interaction term Figure 1d} = 0.068; p_{interaction term Figure 1e} = 0.020; p_{interaction term Figure 1f} = 0.038. * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed); ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); *** correlation is significant at the 0.001 level (2-tailed).