The effect of parents' feeding style on nutritional habits, practices, anthropometric measurements and the life quality of school-age children

This study was planned and carried out to determine the effect of parents' feeding style on the nutritional habits, practices, anthropometric measurements and life quality of school-age children. The study was conducted between October 2020 – January 2021 with students attending third, fourth and fifth grade at Gaziantep Doga Private School. A total of 128 children (Male:72, 56.3%; Female:56, 43.8%) and their parents were included in the study. The demographic characteristics of the children, their eating habits, their food consumption frequency, feeding styles of the parents, quality of life and anthropometric measurements of both parent and child forms were determined. The mean body mass index of school-age girls that were included in the study was 19.64±3.80, while the mean body mass index of boys was 19.87±3.83. Having the highest rate observed, 50% of the girls were found to be in the average range of height and weight for their age and 55,4% of them were found to be in the average range of weight for their height. 45.8% of the boys were in the average ranges of height and weight for their age, and 50% of them were observed to be in the average range of weight for their height. When the feeding styles of girls and boys' parents were examined, it was found that parents adopt encouraging/promotive feeding style the most (28.69±4.54, 28.56±4.49respectively), and on the general average, the least preferred feeding style was the rewarding nutrition (13,222±4,418), and its distribution by gender was found out to be 9,660±3.47, 9,666±3,444 for females and males, respectively. There was no relationship between parents' feeding styles and age and BMI values of girls. As the emotional, rewarding and tolerant controlled feeding style of the parents of boys decreased (leaving the nutrition choices to the child), BMI values also decreased, and as the tightly controlled (tracking) feeding style increased, BMI values also increased. When the eating behavior levels of girls and boys were examined, it was seen that the vast majority of them (18,375±5.45, 19.61±4.65, respectively) felt full and most of them (16.87 ±4.34, 17.27 ±4.32, respectively) were found to be appetent and like to eat. It was found that children of both genders showed beverage addiction the least (8.51±3.35, 8.79±3.01, respectively). According to parents, their children have the highest quality of life in terms of social functioning and the lowest quality of life in terms of physical functioning. In this study, no relationship was found between the age and gender of children and their quality of life, and between the life quality of children and feeding styles of parents in both genders.