Parenting styles, family structure and adolescent dietary behaviour

Pearson, Natalie, Atkin, Andrew J ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3819-3448, Biddle, Stuart J H, Gorely, Trish and Edwardson, Charlotte (2010) Parenting styles, family structure and adolescent dietary behaviour. Public Health Nutrition, 13 (8). pp. 1245-1253. ISSN 1368-9800

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Abstract

To examine associations between parenting styles, family structure and aspects of adolescent dietary behaviour.  Cross-sectional study.  Secondary schools in the East Midlands, UK.  Adolescents aged 12–16 years (n 328, 57 % boys) completed an FFQ assessing their consumption of fruit, vegetables, unhealthy snacks and breakfast. Adolescents provided information on parental and sibling status and completed a seventeen-item instrument measuring the general parenting style dimensions of involvement and strictness, from which four styles were derived: indulgent, neglectful, authoritarian, authoritative.  After controlling for adolescent gender and age, analysis of covariance revealed no significant interactions between parenting style and family structure variables for any of the dietary behaviours assessed. Significant main effects for family structure were observed only for breakfast consumption, with adolescents from dual-parent families (P < 0·01) and those with no brothers (P < 0·05) eating breakfast on more days per week than those from single-parent families and those with one or more brother, respectively. Significant main effects for parenting style were observed for all dietary behaviours apart from vegetable consumption. Adolescents who described their parents as authoritative ate more fruit per day, fewer unhealthy snacks per day, and ate breakfast on more days per week than those who described their parents as neglectful.  The positive associations between authoritative parenting style and adolescent dietary behaviour transcend family structure. Future research should be food-specific and assess the efficacy of strategies promoting the central attributes of an authoritative parenting style on the dietary behaviours of adolescents from a variety of family structures.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	parenting styles,family structure,adolescence,fruit,vegetables,unhealthy snacks,breakfast,dietary behaviour
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Promotion Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	09 Feb 2017 09:35
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2023 01:55
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/62385
DOI:	10.1017/S1368980009992217

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