Child ethnicity and gender influences on parental feeding interactions and styles

This study was conducted to investigate possible relationships between ethnicity and child gender as related to parenting styles (authoritative vs. authoritarian) and total number of interactions during a meal. It also investigated child response to authoritative or authoritarian parenting interactions. This study is a secondary analysis of quantified observational data from the longitudinal study "Family Health Project VIII." Variables relating to demographics, parent behavior, and child response were extracted from a single dinner. Parental behaviors were collapsed into authoritative or authoritarian interactions within the meal. Child responses were collapsed into compliance or non-compliance for each parent interaction. There were no significant results relating child ethnicity or gender to parental feeding styles nor total number of interactions during the meal. The only significant result was that when children comply, more of the parenting interactions were authoritarian than authoritative. No difference was found between the parenting styles when children did not comply.