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Food neophobia and food preference concordance among parent‐child dyads and parents' offering of new foods (252.1)

Our aim was to describe parent/child neophobia, parent offering of new foods, and concordance in food preferences between parent‐child dyads. University email listservs were used to recruit parents of preschoolers (2‐5 y) to complete an online REDCap survey about picky eating. Scales were selected from The Child Feeding Questionnaire+ (offering new foods and pressure to eat), the Child Food Neophobia Scale and 80 items to determine parent‐child food preferences. Concordance (% agreement) and Pearson correlations were calculated in SAS 9.4. The significance level was set at alpha = .05. Respondents (n=258) included mothers (86%), were white (83%), and college educated (65%). Most children (mean age = 40.6 mo ±13.8), were perceived to be of healthy weight (80%) and “good eaters” (60%). Parent (22.0 ± 7.3) and child neophobia (30.0 ± 9.2) correlated significantly (r=.41,p<.01). Offering new foods to children was inversely associated with child (r=‐.52, p<.01) and parent neophobia (r=‐.40, p<.01) and pressure to eat (r=‐.24, p<.01). Parent‐child dyads had >75% concordance in preferences for whole grains, fruit, starchy vegetables and dairy. Lowest concordance (39‐66%) was noted for other vegetables, sweetened beverages, and specific entrees. Discordance occurred when parents had never offered their children a food (e.g. vegetables & proteins), and was uninfluenced by demographic factors. Similarities in parent/child food preferences may be related to the trait of neophobia and, consequently, the specific foods parents offer their children. Educating parents on the potential impact their own neophobia has on their child’s food preferences may be important for early intervention efforts to improve children’s food acceptance.