How Do Parental Feeding Knowledge and Practices Affect Chinese Children’s Weight Status? Findings from Multiple Waves of CHNS

Childhood obesity is related to social and psychological problems, impaired health and morbidity in later life. Since parents are gatekeepers of children’s food selection and they also serve as role models of their children’s dietary intakes, studying parental influence on children’s weight outcomes becomes essential. Through analyzing 3527 children who were 6–11.9 years old drawn from the 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2015 waves of survey data released by China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this paper investigated the association between parental feeding knowledge and practices and Chinese children’s weight status. The study aimed to explore whether there were significant paternal and maternal differences and if there was a time effect in such an association. The results showed that Chinese parents reported fairly healthy feeding knowledge with mothers and fathers showing significant differences in all feeding practice covariates and certain feeding knowledge items (such as fruits and vegetables, sugar, high energy food, and less meat). Parental feeding knowledge and practices were time-varying, indicating a time effect. Some parental feeding knowledge and practice covariates were found to be associated with children’s weight status; but most of the associations did not differ significantly among mothers and fathers. The study highlighted the importance of parental feeding in shaping Chinese children’s weight status. Mothers and fathers play equally critical roles in preventing child obesity.