| The present study evaluated associations between parent-child connectedness and communication, parent perceptions of child weight, parent feeding behaviors (restriction, pressure to eat, and monitoring), and child body mass index percentile among a sample of children aged 8-12 years. To evaluate these associations, this study used a cross-sectional design and maximum likelihood (ML) structural equation modeling to examine a mediation model with parental feeding behaviors mediating the associations between parent-child relationship quality and child body mass index. Furthermore, because of the known associations between parental perceptions of child weight and parent feeding practices, models examining the mediating effects of parent feeding practices between parent perceptions of child weight and child body mass index were also examined. Finally, we used mixture modeling to conduct latent profile analyses, specifying high, moderate, and low levels of each feeding behavior, in order to examine the mediation effects of specific levels of feeding behaviors. Study findings supported restriction as a mediator between parent reported communication (PRC) and child weight, as well as between parent perceptions of child weight (PCW) and child weight. The results also indicated that parent perceptions of child weight predicted feeding practices and child weight. Both restriction and monitoring predicted child weight. Overall, these findings provide evidence for the role of parent-child relationship quality in predicting parent feeding behavior. However, study findings suggest that these associations may differ depending on the rater (i.e., child, parent). |
