Parenting style and adolescent fruit consumption

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Abstract

The importance of the social environment for dietary behaviour has been highlighted in the past decade. A type of environmental influence that has received increasing research attention in recent years is the influence that parents can have on their children's dietary behaviour through food-related parenting practices. Much of the work done so far, however, has reported inconsistent findings and poorly understood mechanisms of influence. The present study aimed to explore the possible environmental influence of general parenting style on adolescent food choice patterns. Data were collected at schools (N=643; mean age 16.5 years), using self-administered questionnaires on parenting style, fruit intake behaviour and fruit-specific cognitions. Consistent and theoretically predictable differences were found between adolescents who described their parents as authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent or neglectful. Fruit consumption and fruit-specific cognitions were most favourable among adolescents who were being raised with an authoritative parenting style. Children of parents with indulgent parenting styles consumed more fruit than adolescents from authoritarian or neglectful homes. Consequences of these results for the interpretation of earlier studies on the influence of parenting practices are discussed, and a research model is proposed for future studies of parental influences on adolescent dietary behaviours.

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Most cited references 36

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J Hill, J Peters (1998)

The current epidemic of obesity is caused largely by an environment that promotes excessive food intake and discourages physical activity. Although humans have evolved excellent physiological mechanisms to defend against body weight loss, they have only weak physiological mechanisms to defend against body weight gain when food is abundant. Control of portion size, consumption of a diet low in fat and energy density, and regular physical activity are behaviors that protect against obesity, but it is becoming difficult to adopt and maintain these behaviors in the current environment. Because obesity is difficult to treat, public health efforts need to be directed toward prevention.

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In order to test Maccoby and Martin's revision of Baumrind's conceptual framework, the families of approximately 4,100 14-18-year-olds were classified into 1 of 4 groups (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, or neglectful) on the basis of the adolescents' ratings of their parents on 2 dimensions: acceptance/involvement and strictness/supervision. The youngsters were then contrasted along 4 sets of outcomes: psychosocial development, school achievement, internalized distress, and problem behavior. Results indicate that adolescents who characterize their parents as authoritative score highest on measures of psychosocial competence and lowest on measures of psychological and behavioral dysfunction; the reverse is true for adolescents who describe their parents as neglectful. Adolescents whose parents are characterized as authoritarian score reasonably well on measures indexing obedience and conformity to the standards of adults but have relatively poorer self-conceptions than other youngsters. In contrast, adolescents from indulgent homes evidence a strong sense of self-confidence but report a higher frequency of substance abuse and school misconduct and are less engaged in school. The results provide support for Maccoby and Martin's framework and indicate the need to distinguish between two types of "permissive" families: those that are indulgent and those that are neglectful.

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K Steinmetz, J D Potter (1996)

In this review of the scientific literature on the relationship between vegetable and fruit consumption and risk of cancer, results from 206 human epidemiologic studies and 22 animal studies are summarized. The evidence for a protective effect of greater vegetable and fruit consumption is consistent for cancers of the stomach, esophagus, lung, oral cavity and pharynx, endometrium, pancreas, and colon. The types of vegetables or fruit that most often appear to be protective against cancer are raw vegetables, followed by allium vegetables, carrots, green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, and tomatoes. Substances present in vegetables and fruit that may help protect against cancer, and their mechanisms, are also briefly reviewed; these include dithiolthiones, isothiocyanates, indole-3-carbinol, allium compounds, isoflavones, protease inhibitors, saponins, phytosterols, inositol hexaphosphate, vitamin C, D-limonene, lutein, folic acid, beta carotene, lycopene, selenium, vitamin E, flavonoids, and dietary fiber. Current US vegetable and fruit intake, which averages about 3.4 servings per day, is discussed, as are possible noncancer-related effects of increased vegetable and fruit consumption, including benefits against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, obesity, diverticulosis, and cataracts. Suggestions for dietitians to use in counseling persons toward increasing vegetable and fruit intake are presented.