Maternal clinical perfectionism and use of controlling child feeding practices
Maternal use of controlling feeding practices (pressure, restriction and monitoring) is understood to influence a child’s developing food preferences and relationship with food. Several associations have been found between maternal psychopathology and use of controlling feeding practices, yet the mechanisms that underpin these relationships are unclear. The current study investigates the role of the transdiagnostic process of perfectionism and maternal use of controlling feeding practices. The study was in two parts. The first part of the study was a cross-sectional questionnaire design. One hundred and two mothers of young children aged between 18 and 47 months completed self-report measures assessing maternal perfectionism, mood and use of controlling feeding practices. For the second part of the study, mothers who reported scores in the upper and lower quartiles on the perfectionism measure were invited to participate in a recorded observation of a mealtime with their child. A between groups design was used to compare those in the upper (n=8) and lower (n=14) quartiles on their observed use of controlling feeding practices. Self-reported pressure to eat was significantly related to both maternal self-reported perfectionism and maternal self-reported depression. The relationship between maternal self-reported perfectionism and use of pressure to eat was robust when controlling for self-reported depression. Furthermore, self-reported depression was not related to pressure to eat when controlling for self-reported perfectionism. In the second part of the study, no significant differences were found between the two groups on observed use of controlling feeding practices. However, mothers in the upper quartile were observed to make more positive comments about food. The findings tentatively support the hypothesis that clinical perfectionism may play an important role in maternal use of controlling feeding practices.
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