A study published in Nutrients has developed a questionnaire to assess parenting practices related to fruit and vegetable intake among children, addressing a gap in measurement tools.
Fruit and vegetable consumption among children in the United States remains below recommended levels. Around 7 per cent of adolescents meet fruit intake recommendations, while about 2 per cent meet vegetable intake targets. Among younger children, daily consumption is higher, at around 68 per cent for fruit and 51 per cent for vegetables.
Parental behaviour influences early food preferences and intake patterns. Practices include ensuring availability, repeated exposure, and modelling consumption. Children may require multiple exposures, often 8 to 10 times, to accept vegetables. Cultural factors also affect preparation and presentation.
Existing tools to measure these practices are limited, often focusing on vegetables or lacking validation. The study aimed to develop a structured and culturally inclusive questionnaire.
The research followed a three-phase approach. An initial 107-item questionnaire was developed based on existing measures. This was refined using data from 18 focus groups involving 62 parents of preschool children. The final version was reduced to 21 items across four subscales and tested with 281 parents of children aged 3 to 5 years.
The subscales include availability, modelling, child-focused practices, and pressure. Statistical analysis confirmed internal consistency and measurement equivalence across different ethnic groups. Some variation was observed in the child-focused subscale, where differences in practices were identified between Hispanic and White parents.
The questionnaire showed associations with children's fruit and vegetable intake and parental preferences. It was not associated with child body mass index, parental education, income, or age.
The study also allows a separate assessment of practices related to fruit and vegetables, supporting a more detailed analysis of consumption patterns.
The tool is designed to be practical for research and intervention evaluation, providing a framework to assess how parental behaviour influences fruit and vegetable intake.
Limitations include the use of a convenience sample and a cross-sectional design, which does not establish causality. The study also focused on a limited set of ethnic groups and did not assess test–retest reliability.
Further research is required to confirm long-term reliability and broader applicability.
Source: News-Medical.Net
