The effects of parental influences on children's food intake, physical activity, and relative weight

The current investigation assessed the relationship between observed child mealtime behavior, physical activity, selected parent behaviors, and child relative weight. Subjects were 30 (15 male, 15 female) preschool children varying in age from 22 to 46 months (mean = 30.5 months). Each subject and parents were observed during the dinnertime meal with an observational instrument designed to measure children's mealtime behaviors and parental influences on child eating. Further, children's activity levels were assessed for one hour and parental influences on child activity were observed. Results indicated that parental encouragements to eat correlated both with the percent of time the child ate and with child relative weight. Similarly, parental encouragements to be active correlated to extreme levels of child motor activity and negatively to relative weight. Implications of the current study are discussed and the present findings are compared and contrasted with previous research.