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Table 1 Description of food parenting practice constructs measured in the Food Parenting Practice Item Bank [15]

From: Identifying and predicting food parenting practice profiles among Canadian parents

Domain

Constructs

Description

n

Item Response Modeling Reliability

Mean

Median

SD

Skewness

Kurtosis

Control

Restriction for weight (4 items)

Parents keep a record of how much the child eats or talk to the child about losing weight.

595

0.79

2.1

2.0

0.9

0.9

3.5

Coercive control (23 items)

Parents regulate children’s behaviours throughout the use of controlling and manipulative strategies.

555

0.96

2.3

2.2

0.8

0.7

3.2

Structure

Accommodate the child (5 items)

Parents allow their child to self-regulate their food intake without setting expectations.

787

0.82

2.4

2.2

0.7

0.7

3.7

Covert control (4 items)

Parents restrict the availability and accessibility of sweet and salty treats at home.

586

0.81

2.7

2.8

1.0

0.1

2.5

Nondirective support (8 items)

Parents model healthy behaviours and suggest their children to eat healthy without forcing them.

580

0.88

3.2

3.1

0.8

−0.1

3.0

Redirection (2 items)

Parents negotiate with their children to limit their consumption of unhealthy food.

787

0.67

3.1

3.0

0.9

−0.3

3.1

Provide healthy eating opportunities (9 items)

Parents systematically provide exposure to healthy foods (e.g. vegetables) at home.

592

0.87

3.7

3.7

0.7

−0.6

3.9

Meal routines (4 items)

Parents have set routines related to food at home.

790

0.78

4.0

4.0

0.8

−0.7

3.1

Rules and limits (9 items)

Parents have expectations about the quantity and quality of foods consumed by the child.

769

0.88

3.7

3.8

0.7

−0.5

3.3

Autonomy promotion

Child involvement (4 items)

Child is involved in meal preparation and decision-making about food.

790

0.87

3.0

3.0

0.7

0.1

3.0

Autonomy support (14 items)

Parents promote healthy eating behaviours through education and encouragement.

567

0.93

3.1

3.1

0.8

−0.1

3.1

  1. The validated food parenting practice item bank included 86 items measuring 11 food parenting practice constructs [15]. For each item, the questionnaire provided one of three 1–5 response scales: “never” to “often”, “never” to “5 to 7 times per week” and finally “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. Item Response Modeling reliability is an empirical reliability score which considers the ordinal nature of the data. For all but one construct (Accommodate the child), a higher score indicates higher endorsement of the construct. For example, a higher score for the construct rules and limits indicates a higher endorsement of structure-like food parenting practices while a higher score for the construct Accommodate the child indicates a lower endorsement of structure-like food parenting practices