Preschool Plates

A healthful diet during early childhood is important for healthy growth and development and contributes to the prevention of chronic diseases. Parents influence children’s dietary intake through their use of food parenting practices. Research to date shows positive associations of structure- and autonomy-support- food parenting practices with healthful dietary intake and eating behaviors in children. In contrast, coercive controlling and indulgent practices have been associated with unhealthful dietary intake and the development of maladaptive eating behaviors over time. 

While research has historically evaluated parents’ “usual” approach to feeding children via questionnaires, recent evidence reveals important within- and between-day variations in the use of food parenting practices across time and contexts. Parents have identified a range of momentary factors (e.g., activities, limited time, stress) in everyday family life that alter their usual approach. The Preschool Plates study seeks to understand how specific food parenting practices vary across time and context, and how various food parenting approaches impact children’s dietary intake over the long term. Preschool Plates is a longitudinal study conducted with a sample (n=250) of racially/ ethnically- and socioeconomically-diverse parent-preschooler dyads. Data will be collected via state-of-the-art measures, including EMA and interview-led 24-hour diet recalls every 6 months for two years. The overarching goal of Preschool Plates is to inform the development of clinic-based recommendations and public health interventions that account for and are responsive to daily challenges found to influence parent’s use of specific food parenting practices.