Children’s eating behaviors develop with influence from parent feeding styles, practices, and beliefs. Researchers examining childhood eating behaviors including ACNC faculty Taren Swindle, are interested in how classroom feeding practices employed by early education staff, who also interact with children during mealtimes, associate with their own childhood experiences. To examine how classroom feeding practices are influenced by early education staff’s remembered experiences, investigators performed an exploratory factor analysis of research questions related to staffs remembered childhood mealtime experiences. Two distinct sets of memories of childhood mealtimes were described – being allowed autonomy (Remembered Autonomy Support) and having adults who used controlling practices (Remembered Adult Control). Staff who remembered experiences that supported their autonomy were significantly more likely to use supportive structural strategies and less likely to use controlling ones. Staff remembering adult-controlled mealtimes were currently less likely to bribe with sweet treats and were more likely to report believing in autonomy supporting mealtimes, unlike their own experiences. Findings suggest there may be opportunities to modify the intergenerational impact of less supportive childhood feeding experiences, such that staff who experienced adult-controlled mealtimes could be influenced to avoid transferring these negative experiences.
