Associations between Parenting Styles and Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Intake

Abstract

This study investigated associations between children’s fruit and vegetable intake and their parents’ parenting style (i.e., authoritative: high warmth-high control; authoritarian: low warmth-high control; permissive: high warmth-low control; and disengaged: low warmth-low control). Data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children K cohort, comprising approximately 5,000 children, were used for analyses in wave 1 (4–5 years), wave 2 (6–7 years), and wave 3 (8–9 years). Fruit and vegetable intake patterns were extracted through exploratory factor analysis. Boys with authoritarian mothers were found less likely to consume fruits and vegetables at 6–9 years. Children of both genders with authoritative and permissive fathers, and girls with authoritative mothers at 4–5 years were found most likely to consume fruits and vegetables two and four years later. Exploring possible mechanisms underlying such associations may lead to interventions aimed at increasing children’s consumption of fruits and vegetables.