Browsing by Author "Rahkola, Jenna"

Background: It is known that the dietary patterns adopted in childhood tend to persist into adulthood. Since unhealthy diet is, for instance, a considerable risk factor for non-communicable diseases, it is important to promote the formation of healthy eating habits in children. Food fussiness, a rather common phenomenon in preschool-aged children, is an eating behavior that can adversely affect diet quality. Additionally, it can have other adverse effects on the child and the whole family. It can cause stress in caregivers, for instance. Temperament and emotion regulation are among the various individual and environmental factors that can influence children’s eating behaviors. There is evidence on the association between food fussiness and temperament, especially dimensions of emotionality and negative affectivity. More emotional temperament has been linked with higher food fussiness. However, few studies have investigated whether emotion regulation could be associated with food fussiness. Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the associations of emotion regulation and emotionality to food fussiness in preschool-aged children, and to examine whether emotion regulation interacts with emotionality in predicting food fussiness. These associations were separately examined for anger, fear, sadness, and positive emotions / exuberance. A secondary objective was to examine the prevalence of fussy eating behavior. Methods: This study was cross-sectional using the baseline data of a feasibility study which tested the effectiveness of an educational mobile application among preschool-aged children in Finland and in Poland. 326 children participated in the study at baseline, and 298 had complete data of the food fussiness measure. Emotion regulation and emotionality were assessed with the Emotion Questionnaire, and food fussiness was assessed with a subscale of the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ), which both are caregiver-report questionnaires. Linear regression models were used to examine the associations of emotion regulation and emotionality to food fussiness. The prevalence of food fussiness was examined according to cut-offs for the CEBQ subscale (3.00 for moderate or higher food fussiness and 3.33 for severe fussiness), and the difference in the prevalence between the Polish subsample and the Finnish subsample was examined with a chi-square test. Results: The (down)regulation of anger was negatively associated with food fussiness (p=0.022). Emotionality was not associated with food fussiness, in terms of any of the emotions, nor did emotionality and emotion regulation interact. In addition, the prevalence of moderate or higher food fussiness (cut-off 3.00) was significantly (p=0.049) higher in Poland (61%) than in Finland (49%). Conclusions: These results suggest that emotion regulation, possibly specifically in relation to anger, is associated with fussy eating behavior. The direction of the association between anger regulation and food fussiness was in line with previous studies on the association between emotion regulation (or parallel concepts) and food fussiness. The possible causal relationship and mechanisms are subjects for further research.