Feeding coparenting: Associations with coercive control, structure-based, and autonomy-promoting food parenting

Feeding coparenting refers to how two parents work together in the child feeding domain. However, little is known about feeding coparenting in relation to food parenting. The current study seeks to examine 1) whether parent demographics (i.e., sex, age, BMI, and employment status) and parent concern about child weight are related to feeding coparenting (i.e., Shared Views, Active Engagement, Solo Parenting) and 2) whether feeding coparenting is related to food parenting (i.e., coercive control feeding, structure-based feeding, autonomypromoting feeding). Parents (n = 160) of 3- to 5-year old children completed an online survey. Parents' sex, employment status, and concern about child weight were related to feeding coparenting (Shared Views, Active Engagement, Solo Parenting). After controlling for those variables, feeding coparenting was related to structurebased (Shared Views and Active Engagement) and autonomy-promoting feeding (Active Engagement). However, none of the feeding coparenting variables were associated with coercive control feeding. These findings illuminate the importance of understanding how parents' feeding coparenting relationship plays a part in food parenting.

Automated summary

This study found that parent demographics and concern about child weight are related to feeding coparenting, and feeding coparenting is related to structure-based feeding and autonomy-promoting feeding, but not coercive control feeding.