# An exploration of the momentary mechanisms of controlling food-related parenting practices among mothers and fathers of preschool children

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2020 · $118,133

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
It is known that parents have the opportunity to significantly influence their children's weight status; however,
limitations exist within the literature exploring the use and impact of food-related parenting practices on child
weight status. Specifically, the bulk of research exploring the impact of food-related parenting practices on
weight-related outcomes has: focused on highly controlling parenting practices - failing to account for the
impact of a much broader scope of food parenting; relied on retrospective measures of food-related parenting
practices; and focused on parent's “usual” use of specific food-related parenting practices – failing to account
for potentially important differences across shorter time frames (within- or between- day) or across contexts.
Finally, momentary mechanisms that influence the use of particular food-related parenting practices remain
unclear. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a novel method that utilizes hand-held devices to capture
information on behaviors as they unfold in their natural environment, moment-by-moment, to capture dynamic
changes in behavior over time and across contexts. Use of EMA could provide an opportunity to elucidate
temporal relationships between momentary variables (e.g., stress, child behavior) and use of food-related
parenting practices. The proposed mixed-methods study will utilize in-depth interviews to identify a broad
scope of food-related parenting practices and the momentary factors that influence them. Parent responses will
then inform the development - and adaptation of measures for use within an EMA protocol. Finally, an EMA
study (n=50) will explore within- and between-parent fluctuations in food-related parenting practices and will
identify momentary influences on parents' use of food-related parenting practices. Knowledge gained and data
collected from the proposed research will lay the foundation for a future R-01 application focused on leveraging
EMA embedded within a longitudinal study to gain a comprehensive understanding of the use and impact of
food-related parenting practices on weight-related outcomes in children. This proposed research also fits within
the broader context of the applicant's career development goals. The overarching goal of this 4-year training
program is to establish the candidate as an independent investigator focused on pediatric obesity prevention.
Specific training activities include: gaining experience in data collection, management and interpretation of data
collected via EMA; developing the multi-level modeling statistical analysis skills necessary to analyze data
collected via EMA; and improving content area knowledge child development and the role of parent-child
interactions in the development of eating behaviors. Together, the proposed training aims and research
activities will allow the candidate to, 1) build on her previous training and research which, to date, has focused
on utilizing traditional s...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9951073
- **Project number:** 5K23HD090324-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Katie Ann Loth
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $118,133
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-05 → 2021-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9951073

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9951073, An exploration of the momentary mechanisms of controlling food-related parenting practices among mothers and fathers of preschool children (5K23HD090324-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9951073. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*