title: Influences on the diet quality of pre-school children: importance of maternal psychological characteristics.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the hypothesis that maternal psychological profiles relate to children's quality of diet.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study. Mothers provided information on their health-related psychological factors and aspects of their child's mealtime environment. Children's diet quality was assessed using an FFQ from which weekly intakes of foods and a diet Z-score were calculated. A high score described children with a better quality diet. Cluster analysis was performed to assess grouping of mothers based on psychological factors. Mealtime characteristics, describing how often children ate while sitting at a table or in front of the television, their frequency of takeaway food consumption, maternal covert control and food security, and children's quality of diet were examined, according to mothers' cluster membership.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mother-child pairs (n 324) in the Southampton Initiative for Health. Children were aged 2-5 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hampshire, UK.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two main clusters were identified. Mothers in cluster 1 had significantly higher scores for all psychological factors than mothers in cluster 2 (all P < 0.001). Clusters were termed 'more resilient' and 'less resilient', respectively. Children of mothers in the less resilient cluster ate meals sitting at a table less often (P = 0.03) and watched more television (P = 0.01). These children had significantly poorer-quality diets (β = -0.61, 95% CI -0.82, -0.40, P ≤ 0.001). This association was attenuated, but remained significant after controlling for confounding factors that included maternal education and home/mealtime characteristics (P = 0.006).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study suggests that mothers should be offered psychological support as part of interventions to improve children's quality of diet.
authors.affiliation: 1MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit,University of Southampton,Southampton General Hospital,Southampton SO16 6YD,UK.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jarman
authors.affiliation: 1MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit,University of Southampton,Southampton General Hospital,Southampton SO16 6YD,UK.
authors.forename: Hazel M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Inskip
authors.affiliation: 1MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit,University of Southampton,Southampton General Hospital,Southampton SO16 6YD,UK.
authors.forename: Georgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ntani
authors.affiliation: 1MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit,University of Southampton,Southampton General Hospital,Southampton SO16 6YD,UK.
authors.forename: Cyrus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: 1MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit,University of Southampton,Southampton General Hospital,Southampton SO16 6YD,UK.
authors.forename: Janis
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baird
authors.affiliation: 1MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit,University of Southampton,Southampton General Hospital,Southampton SO16 6YD,UK.
authors.forename: Sian M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: 1MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit,University of Southampton,Southampton General Hospital,Southampton SO16 6YD,UK.
authors.forename: Mary E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Barker
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000592:standards*; D015930:Diet Records; D057140:Fast Foods; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D062407:Meals; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009753:Nutritive Value; D016487:Parenting; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013690:Television; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Cluster analysis; Diet; Maternal self-efficacy; Mealtime environment; Pre-school