At present, the process of parental modelling of eating behaviours and attitudes has received limited research interest. While often mentioned as a possible factor in relation to child feeding and the development of eating behaviours, only a few studies have explicitly researched parental modelling. The main aims of this thesis were to develop a new measure to assess modelling multidimensionally and to explore the relationships between parental modelling of eating behaviours with a variety of parent and child factors. Initially, a parental self-report measure (the Parental Modelling of Eating Behaviours Scale; PARM) was developed, validated and piloted as part of a series of studies exploring the associations between modelling and a range of self-reported parental and child factors. To provide further validation for the PARM, an observational coding scheme was developed, based on the newly developed modelling measure, and this was utilised in two further studies which looked at self-reported and observed parent and child factors. The key findings from this thesis suggest a number of beneficial relationships. For example, maternal modelling was positively correlated with healthy food intake in both mothers and their children. In addition, both maternal and paternal modelling were associated with children s increased enjoyment of food and lower levels of food fussiness. Observations of maternal modelling were also found to be positively related to other observed adaptive, non-directive feeding practices, such as encouragement to eat. However, less positive relationships were also identified, with modelling being related to parents mental health symptoms and to unhealthy food intake in both mothers and their children. In conclusion, this thesis has identified three distinct facets of modelling and highlighted factors which might be linked to parental role modelling around eating behaviours. While much of the research within this thesis is exploratory, and the findings require replication, they would suggest that parental modelling has the potential to positively influence children s eating behaviours. However, parents should also be made aware of the potential detrimental effect that modelling less adaptive eating behaviours may have on their children s food intake, particularly those eating behaviours that parents may be unaware of modelling.

The current research was developed from a review of the literature on the influence of parental control on children's eating and weight, and in particular the research examining parental restriction and poor self-regulation of energy. The impetus for the research was the confusion in the literature about the positive and negative aspects of control and the need to explore the influence of parental control at earlier periods of child development in socio economically diverse samples. The aim of the first study was to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) in an Australian sample of preschool children. Consistent with previous research, the factor structure was problematic with respect to the Restriction subscale. The two items that ask about the use of rewards showed poor cohesion with other items on the Restriction subscale, raising concerns about the conceptualisation of restriction as measured by the CFQ. The second study sought to determine whether currently available measures of restriction were appropriate for assessing parent behaviours with toddlers, and to explore the strategies that mothers use to control their toddlers' intake of energy-dense snack foods. A qualitative methodology was employed and interviews were conducted with 22 mothers who had toddlers aged between 18 and 24 months. A key finding was a lack of variability in responses to the CFQ Restriction subscale in contrast to the range of individual differences in parents' reported use of control. A thematic analysis provided the basis for the development of a questionnaire to quantify the key concepts that were identified. Exploratory factor analysis was then used to refine these concepts resulting in a five factor structure that has been named the Toddler Feeding Questionnaire (TFQ). The TFQ incorporates a broad range of measures of parental control over feeding, including how much parents allow access to energy-dense foods (Allow Access), the rules associated with managing intake of these foods (Rules), and flexibility in the way rules are applied (Flexibility). It also includes a measure of parental self-efficacy beliefs (Self-efficacy), which may influence the use of feeding practices, and a measure of toddlers' attraction to energy-dense foods (Child's Attraction), a characteristic of the child that may influence both parent feeding practices and energy intake. The factor structure was examined in a sample of mothers of toddlers, and replicated in a second sample of mothers of preschool children, who responded retrospectively about their feeding practices. Subsequent analyses were conducted to examine the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity of the TFQ factors to provide a preliminary validation of the instrument. To further examine the validity of the TFQ, feeding practices of normal weight, overweight and obese parents were compared. The relationship between the TFQ factors (based on retrospective reports) and BMI z scores in preschool children were also examined. In the preschool sample only, normal weight parents had significantly more rules compared to obese parents and were less flexible compared to overweight parents, and obese parents allowed their children more access to snack foods compared with overweight and normal weight parents. The TFQ factors were not associated with BMI z scores in preschool children. The final study investigated the association between feeding practices, including the TFQ factors and CFQ Restriction, and self-regulation of energy intake in toddlers. The main aim was to determine if the TFQ factor Allow Access would moderate the relationship between CFQ Restriction and ad libitum intake of snack foods, using an age appropriate adaptation of the Free Access Procedure developed by Fisher and Birch (1999a). The findings confirmed a moderating influence of Allow Access. Restriction was a significant predictor of intake only when Allow Access was high. The implications of this finding for the development of parental feeding advice and the conceptualisation of parental control are discussed. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1331550 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2008

The Food neophobia (FN) behaviors in children are developed during childhood and can be influenced by parental FN and feeding behaviors. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between FN and fruit and vegetable neophobia (FVN) among parents, the parents-reports on child's behavior and child self-reports. The effect of parental feeding practices and demographic variables on children’s FN and FVN were evaluated. Sixty-eight parents paired with their elementary school children (aged 7-12 years) in San Luis Coastal Unified School District participated in this study. Results indicated that parents reported their children more neophobic than children self-reported neophobia; however, there was a significant association between parents-reported child FN and child self-reported FN (r=0.62, p<0.05). FVN behaviors were positively and consistently correlated with FN in both parents and children. Parents with the highest income levels used less restriction for weight and child control strategies to feed their children (p<0.05). More pressure to eat was applied significantly for younger children, which increased their levels of food and FVN as reported by parents.

Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents are among the most crucial public health issues of the 21st century and are already determined in the prenatal period. In order to prevent the development of overweight and obesity, examining and changing their risk factors is important to reduce the current epidemic of overweight and obesity. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to investigate risk factors of overweight and obesity from the prenatal period to childhood and to examine the preceding determinants of those risk factors. On the basis of three studies, the influence of maternal risk factors on maternal mental health during pregnancy (Study 1) and maternal mental health during pregnancy on birth outcomes and weight status in early childhood (Study 2), and the associations of parental feeding practices and weight status during childhood (Study 3) were examined. The results showed that pregnant women with higher pre pregnancy body mass index, sleep problems, and who did not plan pregnancy were at higher risk for mental health problems during pregnancy (Study 1), which in turn adversely affected birth weight and gestational age at birth (Study 2). Furthermore, weight status during childhood was found to be the cause of parents employing controlling feeding practices during childhood but weight status seemed to be largely unaffected by such practices (Study 3). Overall, study results were interpreted within the context of the current state of research and implications of the results for future research and practice were discussed.:Abbreviations Bibliographic summary 1 Introduction 1.1 Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents 1.1.1 Prevalence rates 1.1.2 Developmental dynamics 1.1.3 Consequences on health 1.1.4 Prevention and intervention 1.2 Parental predictors of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents 1.2.1 Prenatal predictors 1.2.1.1 Maternal anthropometric risk factors and medical conditions 1.2.1.2 Maternal behavioral risk factors 1.2.1.3 Maternal psychosocial and mental risk factors 1.2.2 Predictors during childhood 1.2.2.1 Parental feeding practices 2 Research needs and study objectives 2.1 Mental health in pregnant women and its influence on birth outcomes 2.1.1 Study objectives and hypotheses: Manuscript 1 2.1.2 Study objectives and hypotheses: Manuscript 2 2.2 Anthropometric development during childhood and parental feeding practices 2.2.1 Study objectives and hypotheses: Manuscript 3 3 Publication manuscripts 3.1 Gestational weight gain, physical activity, sleep problems, substance use, and food intake as proximal risk factors of stress and depressive symptoms during pregnancy 3.2 Maternal depressive symptoms and stress during pregnancy as predictors of gestational age at birth and standardized body mass index from birth up to 2 years of age 3.3 Stability, continuity, and bi directional associations of parental feeding practices and standardized child body mass index in children from 2 to 12 years of age 4 Summary 5 References 6 Appendix 6.1 Declaration of unaffiliation 6.2 Curriculum vitae and publication list 6.3 Acknowledgment

L’alimentation infantile est très encadrée par les instances médicales. Elle constitue donc un point d’observation privilégié de la médicalisation du quotidien et des conditions de diffusion des cultures savantes. Afin d’expliciter les déterminants sociaux de l’alimentation infantile, deux ensembles de données sont mobilisés : d’une part, un corpus documentaire, composé d’articles scientifiques, de publications à destination des parents et des échanges tenus sur un forum en ligne consacré à la puériculture, d’autre part, les données de l’Étude longitudinale française depuis l’enfance. Cette enquête aborde les thématiques du développement, de la santé et de l’alimentation d’un échantillon d’environ 18300 nourrissons, elle renseigne également le détail des caractéristiques sociodémographiques des parents. La première partie de la thèse est consacrée aux conditions de production et de diffusion des recommandations médicales en matière d’alimentation infantile. Nous montrons que, d’une part, les luttes pour le monopole de l’autorité scientifique à l’intérieur de l’espace de la recherche en nutrition pédiatrique, d’autre part, les demandes particulières des pouvoirs publics et des industriels adressées aux experts de l’alimentation infantile, révèlent l’incertitude et la variabilité des recommandations médicales en matière d’alimentation infantile. La réception par les parents de ces recommandations peut alors prendre la forme d’une appropriation des recommandations dominantes, d’une appropriation des recommandations dominées considérées comme mieux actualisées ou d’une mise à distance, parfois très critique, des recommandations médicales voire de la résistance au principe même d’une puériculture médicalisée. La deuxième partie montre que la conformité aux recommandations médicales de l’alimentation des nourrissons est fonction de l’interaction entre le niveau de diplôme des mères et les conditions de leur socialisation au maternage (notamment, leurs pratiques de recherche d’information en matière de diversification alimentaire). Ainsi, la réception de la puériculture médicalisée apparaît dépendante autant du rapport entretenu, par les parents, à la médecine comme système abstrait que du rapport qu’ils entretiennent aux représentants de ce système. Ces rapports étant fonction de l’expérience scolaire des parents. Dans une troisième partie, nous montrons que les répertoires alimentaires maternels ont un effet propre ainsi qu’un effet conditionné aux caractéristiques sociales des mères sur l’alimentation des enfants durant leur première année. / Medical instances strongly control infant feeding. Then parental feeding practices are a means of observing medicalization of everyday life and diffusion of science-based practices. In order to explain the social determinants of parental feeding practices, two sets of data are used: a corpus of documents composed of scientific articles, publications aimed at parents and conversations held on an online forum that concerns childcare and, on the other hand, the French longitudinal study from childhood. This study gathers information on 18300 infants. The study broaches questions of infant development, health and feeding. It also gives details on parents’ socio-demographic characteristics. The first part of this thesis is confined to conditions of production and diffusion of medical recommendations concerning infant feeding. We demonstrate that, firstly the struggle for the monopoly on scientific authority within the field of research in pediatric nutrition and secondly the specific demands of public authorities and industries transferred to experts of infant nutrition, reveals the uncertainty and the variations of the medical recommendations concerning infant nutrition. Parents receptiveness of those medical recommendations can take the form of an appropriation of the mainstream recommendations, an assimilation of minor recommendations considered as the most up to date, or a distancing, sometimes very critical, of the medical recommendations, or even more the resistance to the very idea of medicalised parental practices. The second part shows that the conformity to medical recommendations of infant feeding is a product of the interaction between mothers’ education levels and the conditions of their socialisation to maternity (in particular their methods of researching information on complementary feeding). Therefore, the receptiveness of medicalised childcare appears to be dependent as on the relationship between the parents and medicine, as an abstract system, as on the relationship between parents and representatives of that system. These relationships are a product of the educational experience of the parents. In the third part, we demonstrate that the mother’s feeding repertoires have a proper effect, and an effect conditioned by parents' social characteristics, on infant feeding during their first year.

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