Predicting Pressure to Eat Feeding Practices among Asian American Immigrant Mothers

Abstract

Mothers who engage in controlling feeding practices, such as pressure to eat, may undermine their children'snatural abilities to respond to satiety cues and may increase their risk for obesity-related health conditions. Asian American parents use pressure to eat more frequently than other ethnic groups. This practice may be particularly influential in the obesogenic U.S. environment, where Asian American children'sobesity rates are increasing despite stabilizing rates among other ethnicities. We investigated factors that may predict Asian American parents' use of pressure to eat with their 3- to 8-year-old children. Maternal acculturation was significantly associated with decreased use of pressure to eat practices among mothers with low and moderate levels of parenting stress; however, this association was not significant when mothers experienced high levels of parenting stress. Our findings inform community and intervention programs that aim to work with mothers in culturally appropriate ways to promote healthy feeding practices.