title: Does child temperament modify the overweight risk associated with parent feeding behaviors and child eating behaviors?: An exploratory study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Child temperament is a measure of an individual's behavioral tendencies. The primary objective of this study was to examine whether child temperament modified the overweight risk associated with parent feeding behaviors and child eating behaviors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of predominantly African American, Midwest families (N = 120) recruited from four metropolitan primary care clinics participated in this cross-sectional, mixed methods study. Parents reported on feeding practices, child eating behaviors, and child temperament.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Difficult temperament was not statistically related to parent feeding practices or child eating behaviors (p > 0.05). Tests of interaction indicated that the risk of child overweight differed by difficult temperament and easy temperament for two child eating behaviors (emotional eating and food fussiness, p < 0.05). For example, the effect of food fussiness decreased the risk of overweight for difficult temperament children but increased overweight risk for easy temperament children. Further, the effect of emotional eating increased the risk of overweight for difficult temperament children but decreased overweight risk for easy temperament children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tailoring parent-level interventions to child temperament or promoting environments that trigger less reactive individual responses may be effective in lowering risk of child overweight.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. Electronic address: tatex098@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Allan D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Tate
authors.affiliation: Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trofholz
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen Moritz
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Rudasill
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neumark-Sztainer
authors.affiliation: Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Jerica M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Berge
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament
keywords: Child obesity; Child overweight; Child temperament; Eating behaviors; Parent feeding practices