Background:
The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has been increasing globally, with poor diet a key contributor. Eating patterns established early in life track into later years, with parents playing an influential role in the food intake of younger children. The associations of parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and disengaged) and parenting dimensions (warmth and control) with pre-school children’s dietary intake are unclear at present. This systematic review examines these relationships.
Methods:
A search of six electronic databases was conducted. Inclusion criteria included articles published in English including children aged between 2 and 5 years, measured and reported associations between parenting styles or dimensions and food intake.
Results:
Seven articles met the inclusion criteria. Three articles focussed on parenting styles and four articles focussed on parenting dimensions. An authoritative parenting style was positively associated with fruit and vegetable intake (n = 2). High levels of warmth were associated with an increased intake of healthy foods (n = 2) and a lower intake of unhealthy foods (n = 1), whereas low levels of parental warmth were associated with a lower intake of fruit and vegetables (n = 1) and a higher intake of unhealthy foods (n = 1). However, several different measurement tools were used to identify the parenting styles (n = 3) and dietary intake (n = 6), with reliability and validity and reported in varying ways.
Conclusions:
This review suggests that an authoritative parenting style or higher levels of warmth are associated with a healthier dietary intakes of pre-school children. Future research would benefit from using consistent measures of parenting styles and dietary intake. There is potential for future studies to explore the ways parenting styles may be modified through interventions to promote an authoritative parenting style, which may improve the dietary intake of pre-school children.