January 2009: Resemblance in Dietary Intakes between Urban Low-Income African-American Adolescents and Their Mothers: The Healthy Eating and Active Li

Adolescents often learn their eating habits from their parents. The goal of this research was to examine was to examine the potential association and predictors of dietary intake resemblance between urban low-income African-American adolescents and their mothers. Other research has noted the impact of parents on the nutritional habits of their adolescents and teens. Research has shown that parents involvement with their children's eating habits, by eating with them at family meals for example, is associated with a lower risk of poor consumption of fruits, vegetables, and diary foods as well as the likelihood of skipping breakfast.

The research for this study was done by using detailed dietary data collected from 121 child–parent pairs in Chicago during fall 2003. The study was titled The Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyles from School to Home for Kids study, and was a randomized trial to assess the effectiveness of a school-based obesity prevention program targeting low-income African-American adolescents. The school were the research was conducted enrolled approximately 400 students but parent participation in the study was low, and consisted predominantly of mothers. Student anthropomorphic data was taken by trained research assistants and dietary information was collected using extensive self-administered Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQ). Parental surveys, including the detailed FFQ, were mailed to those who had agreed to participate in the study.

According to the results of the survey showed that the average adolescent surveyed ate over 3,500 kcal/day, while the mothers intake was around 2.500 kcal/day. The analysis did note high calcium and fiber intake among the adolescents. When all the data collected was analyzed statistically using correlations it was found that there were only weak, non-significant, positive correlations between the adolescent's diet and their mothers. The biggest predictor statistically of whether the children would have unhealthy eating patterns was whether the mother smoked cigarettes. It was also found that the mother-son correlation in eating habits was weaker than the mother-daughter correlation. And the study's conclusion was that the weak association between mother-child nutritional intake suggests that external factors (eg, meals consumed away from home, school food environment, and peer and marketing pressure) likely to play a more significant role in shaping adolescents' eating patterns.


JADA Continuing Education Article
Wang, W. & Caballero, B. (2009). Resemblance in dietary intakes between urban low-income african-american adolescents and their mothers: The healthy eating and active lifestyles from school to home for kids study. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 109 (1) 52-63.

Supporting Article
Videon, T.M. & Manning, C.K. (2003). Influences on adolescent eating patterns: the importance of family meals. Journal of Adolescent Health, 32 (5) 365-373. Retrieved January 8, 2009 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T80-48FMJJV-9&_user=7682310&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=7682310&md5=8c63492329deaa16d5de930266971879.