Although American children snack more than ever before, the parental role in promoting snacking is not well understood. In 2012-2013 at baseline in an intervention study to prevent childhood obesity in low-income Massachusetts communities, n = 271 parents of children aged 2-12 years completed surveys regarding nutritive and non-nutritive reasons they offered children snacks, demographics, and dietary factors. An analysis of variance demonstrated that parents reported offering snacks (mean/week; standard deviation (SD)) for nutritive reasons like promoting growth (x̄ = 2.5; SD 2.2) or satisfying hunger (x̄ = 2.4; SD 2.1) almost twice as often as non-nutritive reasons like keeping a child quiet (x̄ = 0.7; SD 1.5) or celebrating events/holidays (x̄ = 0.8; SD 1.1). Parents reported giving young children (2-5 years) more snacks to reward behavior (1.9 vs. 1.1, p < 0.001), keep quiet (1.0 vs. 0.5, p < 0.001), and celebrate achievements (1.7 vs. 1.0, p < 0.001) than parents of older children (6-12 years). Multivariable logistic regression models were used to obtain adjusted odds ratios, which indicated reduced child adherence to dietary recommendations when parents offered snacks to reward behavior (Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.83; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.70-0.99), celebrate events/holidays (OR = 0.72; 95% CI 0.52-0.99), or achievements (OR = 0.82; 95% CI 0.68-0.98). Parental intentions around child snacking are likely important targets for obesity prevention efforts.
Keywords: child feeding; childhood obesity prevention; parenting; snacks.