Influence of parents on the food behaviour

This session provides a scientific review of studies looking at parental influence on children’s food behaviour, examining in particular the ability to adjust calories intake (eating according to hunger and satiety), the variety of foods consumed (in relation to likes and dislikes) as well as the level of neophobia (resistance to try new foods).

We begin by looking at the evolution in relation to age and inter-individual differences for each of the different behaviours. We will show that the ability to adjust food intake becomes less efficient with age, preferences become broader and neophobia decreases. However, this evolution over time does not happen at the same time or in the same way for all children. To explain these differences, we have looked at family behaviour, what are the foods proposed to the child, the attitudes about food (health interest, weight and the pleasure of eating) as well as the educational practices associated with meals. We aim to determine if certain practices are more appropriate than others to maintain or develop adaptative child food behaviour (good ability to adapt calorie intake, broad consumption of foods, low level of neophobia/selectivity).

Together, the results of this work show that a high concern for children’s weight can contribute to disrupt the capacity to regulate calorie intake, that likes and dislikes are essentially influenced by the context of how children eat food in the family environment and the foods proposed and that the degree of neophobia is dependant upon parental response.

These results however, are not definitive as there are too few studies in this field and some evidence is contradictory.