Maternal discouragement and child intake of a palatable dessert A multilevel sequential analysis_2018.pdf PeschMegan BerlinKristoffer S. CesaroRobert J. RybakTiffany M. MillerAlison L. RosenblumKatherine L. LumengJulie 2019 <div>Background: Family mealtimes are often marked by parent-child conflict, which may arise when children's</div><div>eating behaviors do not match parental expectations. Little is known about how children respond to parents'</div><div>comments to discourage eating.</div><div>Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the likelihood of a child taking a bite following a maternal</div><div>statement to discourage child intake.</div><div>Methods: 50 mother-child dyads (mean child age 71.8 months) participated in a laboratory eating task with</div><div>cupcakes. Video recordings were reliably coded for maternal statements to discourage child intake (varying by</div><div>domains of affective valence and directness) and child bites. Multilevel sequential analysis was performed to</div><div>determine differences in pairs' antecedent statement to discourage child intake and a child's discouraged bite.</div><div>Results: Children were significantly more likely to be non-compliant by taking a bite following negative (vs.</div><div>positive), indirect (vs. direct) and negative direct (vs. positive direct) statements to discourage child intake (that</div><div>is, a “discouraged bite”). There were no differences in children taking discouraged bites following a negative</div><div>indirect vs. positive indirect statement to discourage child intake.</div><div>Conclusions: Children may be more apt to comply with their mother's mealtime commands if they are delivered</div><div>with a direct approach and a positive affective valence. Future work should examine the longitudinal effects of</div><div>using positive direct mealtime commands on children's food intake, weight gain and emotional health.</div>