General parenting styles are not strongly associated with fruit and vegetable intake and social-environmental correlates among 11-year-old children in four countries in Europe

Abstract

Objectives To investigate whether fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake in 11-year-olds, and social-environmental correlates of F&V intake such as parental modelling and encouragement, family food rules and home availability, differ according to general parenting styles in Belgium, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Primary schools in four countries. Subjects Pupils and one of their parents completed questionnaires to measure F&V intake, related social-environmental correlates and general parenting styles. The sample size was 4555 (49·3 % boys); 1180 for Belgium, 883 for The Netherlands, 1515 for Portugal and 977 for Spain. Parenting styles were divided into authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent and neglectful. Results No differences were found in F&V intake across parenting styles and only very few significant differences in social-environmental correlates. The authoritarian (more parental encouragement and more demands to eat fruit) and the authoritative (more availability of fruit and vegetables) parenting styles resulted in more favourable correlates. Conclusion Despite earlier studies suggesting that general parenting styles are associated with health behaviours in children, the present study suggests that this association is weak to non-existent for F&V intakes in four different European countries.