JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

A healthful diet in early childhood is essential for healthy growth and disease prevention. Parents influence children's diets through supportive (e.g., structure, autonomy support) and unsupportive (e.g., coercive control, indulgence) food parenting practices. Historically, much of this work has focused on parents' "usual" feeding behaviors using survey methods. More recent studies employing Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methods, however, have allowed assessment of food parenting behaviors in “real-time.” This work has revealed that the practices used by parents to feed children vary across contexts and are influenced by factors like stress or time constraints. Research is needed to understand the dynamic nature of food parenting and its impact on children’s diets.

Objective:

We aim to describe the methods and procedures used in the Preschool Plates study, which aimed to 1) Describe within- and between- fluctuations in food parenting practices across time and context, 2) Examine longitudinal impact of within- and between-day fluctuations in food parenting practices on child dietary intake, and 3) Identify momentary predictors of within- and between-day fluctuations in food parenting practices across time and context.

Methods:

Preschool Plates is a longitudinal, cohort study examining the impact of food parenting practices on the dietary intake of 3–5-year-old aged children. A total of 273 parent-preschooler dyads were consented and enrolled and 254 dyads completed baseline data collection. Dyads will be followed for two years using state-of-the-art measures, including an eight- day EMA protocol to assess food parenting, contemporary measures of food parenting, and three interview-led 24-hour dietary recalls, collected at 6-month intervals. Child height and weight is measured at three time-points.

Results:

Recruitment for our baseline sample (n=254) occurred between October 2023 and September 2024. Participants will complete follow-up data collection at six-month intervals for two years. A racially- and ethnically -diverse cohort was enrolled, with 33% of enrolled participants identifying as white and 67% identifying as non-white.

Conclusions:

Findings from the proposed study will inform the development of anticipatory guidance for feeding young children and randomized controlled trials designed to intervene on parents’ response to momentary factors to encourage interactions with children around feeding that promote optimal diet quality. For example, findings could inform the development of an ecological momentary (i.e., real-time) intervention which delivers content to participant’s mobile devices in response to real-time assessments of context and circumstance. Clinical Trial: Not a clinical trail.