Perceived childhood parenting styles, childhood feeding practices, and current maladaptive and adaptive eating behaviors among Chinese adolescents and adults

Purpose: The current study aimed to explore the relationships among Perceived childhood parenting styles, childhood feeding practices, and current maladaptive and adaptive eating behaviors in Chinese adolescents and adults.

Methods: We recruited 499 adolescents (58.5% girls, aged 16 to 18 years) in Tianjin with paper-and-pencil questionnaires, and 501 adults (49.7% women, aged 18 to 45 years) by Credamo, a reliable online survey platform. A set of questionnaires assessing perceived childhood parenting (i.e., emotional warmth, rejection, and overprotection), childhood feeding practices (i.e., concern, monitoring, pressure to eat, and restriction), and maladaptive and adaptive eating behaviors were used. Specifically, perceived childhood parenting styles and childhood feeding practices were measured by participants’ recall of their interactions with their parents in childhood (≤12 years old). Correlation and mediation analyses were carried out.

Results: Results revealed that compared to intuitive eating as an adaptive eating, disordered eating as maladaptive eating was more significantly related to childhood feeding practice in Chinese adults and adolescents, and disordered eating was more significantly related to childhood feeding practices in Chinese adult women, adult men, and girls. In Chinese adult men, the relationship between emotional warmth and disordered eating was fully mediated by concern with a total indirect effect of .14 (95%CI .08, 0.24; p < .001); and the relationship between overprotection and disordered eating was fully mediated by pressure to eat with a total indirect effect of .06 (95%CI .01, 0.14; p = .054). In Tianjin boys, the relationship between warmth and disordered eating was fully mediated by concern with a total indirect effect of .08 (95% CI .02, .18; p = .045). However, none of the childhood feeding practices showed mediating effects between perceived childhood parenting and eating behaviors in Chinese adult women and girls.

Conclusions: Perceived childhood parenting styles and childhood feeding practices are more related to adolescents’ and adults’ current maladaptive than adaptive eating behaviors. Parents’ feeding practices might be a mediator between childhood parenting styles and current disordered eating behaviors, especially in males.