Parental Influence on Adolescent Dietary Behaviors

Parents shape adolescents’ eating patterns through multiple pathways, including the types of foods made available at home, the rules and routines surrounding meals, and their own eating behaviours as observed by their children. Modelling of healthy or unhealthy food choices serves as a powerful learning cue, while feeding practices such as setting clear mealtime structure, offering guided choices and supporting autonomy can foster self-regulation in dietary decisions. Conversely, coercive control tactics—such as pressure to consume certain foods or punitive restriction—may provoke resistance, emotional eating or dietary dissatisfaction. Socioeconomic factors, parental stress and cultural norms further modulate these influences, with real-time fluctuations in mood or workload affecting momentary feeding practices. A nuanced understanding of these interconnections underpins global efforts to promote balanced diets, prevent obesity and support adolescents’ lifelong relationship with food.

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Parental Influence on Adolescent Dietary Behaviors publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in parental influence on adolescent dietary behaviors across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Food parenting practices: Specific strategies used by caregivers to shape adolescents’ eating behaviours, encompassing rules, routines, encouragement and restriction.

Modelling: The process whereby parents’ own eating behaviours serve as observational cues that adolescents tend to emulate.

Coercive control: Feeding behaviours characterised by pressure, restriction or use of food as a reward, which can undermine adolescents’ self-regulation.

Autonomy support: Parental approaches that encourage adolescents to make independent, informed dietary choices, fostering competence and self-control.

References

1. The influence of parental practices on child promotive and preventive food consumption behaviors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2017).
2. Parents’ Modeling During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Influences on Family Members’ Diet Quality and Satisfaction With-Food-Related Life in Dual-Earner Parents With Adolescent Children. Frontiers in Nutrition (2022).
3. Is Adolescents’ Food Intake Associated with Exposure to the Food Intake of Their Mothers and Best Friends?. Nutrients (2020).
4. Real-time predictors of food parenting practices and child eating behaviors in racially/ethnically diverse families. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2023).