| Popis: |
Research is needed to identify pathways by which household food insecurity (FI) contributes to parental controlling feeding styles and infant food responsiveness, two factors that play a role in shaping obesity risk across infancy and early childhood.This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that prenatal FI would be positively associated with higher infant food responsiveness via greater parental mental health symptomatology and higher controlling feeding styles (pressuring, restrictive).Participants included a community sample of 170 birth parents and their infants participating in an ongoing longitudinal study. Parents self-reported household FI and mental health symptoms (depression and anxiety) during pregnancy. Postnatally, parents reported their mental health symptoms, their use of controlling feeding styles, and infant food responsiveness. Path analysis with bias-corrected 95% bootstrapped confidence intervals tested direct and indirect associations between prenatal FI and infant food responsiveness.Prenatal FI was indirectly associated with higher infant food responsiveness via greater parental mental health symptomatology and pressuring to finish [b (95% CI) = 0.01 (0.001-0.025)]. Prenatal FI was associated with greater parental mental health symptomatology across the peripartum period (β = 0.54, P 0.001), which in turn, was associated with higher pressuring to finish at 2 mo pospartum (β = 0.29, P = 0.01) and higher infant food responsiveness at 6 mo (β = 0.17, P = 0.04). There were no direct effects of prenatal FI on controlling feedings styles or infant food responsiveness.Our findings point to parental mental health as a potential pathway by which FI may be associated with obesity-promoting parental feeding styles and infant appetitive behaviors. In addition to ensuring reliable access to enough quality food during pregnancy, multipronged assistance that promotes emotional well-being during the peripartum period and clinical guidance on non-controlling feeding styles could benefit parent and infant health and well-being. |
