How parents’ feeding styles, attitudes, and multifactorial aspects are associated with feeding difficulties in children

Table 2 General characteristic of parents according to feeding difficulties.

Parents variables	Total population (n = 323)		FD (child)				p*
	Total population (n = 323)		No (n = 237)		Yes (n = 86)
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Gender
Female	226	69.97	161	67.93	65	75.58	0.185
Male	97	30.03	76	32.07	21	24.42
Self-reported skin color
White	248	80.00	185	80.79	63	77.78	0.561
Not white	62	20.00	44	19.21	18	22.22
Education level
Up to high school	72	22.29	54	22.78	18	20.93	0.905
Higher education	159	49.23	115	48.52	44	51.16
Above higher education	92	28.48	68	28.69	24	27.91
Working regime
Not engaged in paid activity	64	22.54	46	22.33	18	23.08	0.828
Part-time (< 44 h per week)	56	19.72	39	18.93	17	21.79
Full-time (≥ 44 h per week)	164	57.75	121	58.74	43	55.13
Income category
≤ 3 MW	28	8.78	20	8.55	8	9.41	0.182
> 3 to 10 MW	144	45.14	99	42.31	45	52.94
> 10 MW	147	46.08	115	49.15	32	37.65
Marital status
With partner	284	89.31	208	88.89	76	90.48	0.686
With no partner	34	10.69	26	11.11	8	9.52
Number of children
1	164	51.74	118	50.64	46	54.76	0.294
2	120	37.85	87	37.34	33	39.29
≥ 3	33	10.41	28	12.02	5	5.95
Nutritional status
Low weight/eutrophic	130	42.07	96	41.74	34	43.04	0.933
Overweight	107	34.63	81	35.22	26	32.91
Obesity	72	23.30	53	23.04	19	24.05
Prior health history
Diag. of depression	46	15.23	26	11.71	20	25.00	0.005
Diag. of eating disorder	10	3.31	6	2.69	4	5.06	0.295
FD	115	36.28	67	28.76	48	57.14	< 0.001
Parental style
Authoritative	76	23.82	42	18.03	34	39.53	< 0.001
Authoritarian	80	25.08	46	19.74	34	39.53
Indulgent	141	44.20	127	54.51	14	16.28
Uninvolved	22	6.90	18	7.73	4	4.65

Note: Minimum wage = R$ 1,045.00; Significance seen by the chi-square test or Fisher’s test; n = sample; significance level p < 0.05. FD = feeding difficulties

ISSN: 1471-2431