Background/objectives: Family meals have been shown to be an important protective factor for positive health outcomes. This study assessed the associations of parenting factors with family mealtime among overweight African American adolescents over a period of 4 months. It was hypothesized that increases in warm and responsive parenting (parental responsiveness, parental responsibility) would be associated with increased frequency and quality of family mealtimes, while more demanding and controlling parenting (parental demandingness, parental monitoring) would be associated with a reduced frequency and quality of family mealtimes over time.
Methods: Data from baseline to 16 weeks were collected from 241 African American adolescent-parent dyads (adolescent: Mage = 12.8 ± 1.7 years; 64% female; MBMI%= 96.6 ± 4.2) that participated in the Families Improving Together (FIT) for Weight Loss randomized controlled trial.
Results: Multilevel models revealed significant positive main effects of parental responsiveness and parental responsibility (p < 0.05) on the increased frequency of family meals (p < 0.01). Significant two-way interactions also showed that parental responsiveness (p < 0.05) predicted improved quality of family mealtimes, whereas parental demandingness (p < 0.01) predicted reduced quality of family mealtimes from baseline to 16 weeks.
Conclusions: Results from this study have important implications for African American adolescent obesity prevention and future family-based intervention program guidelines.
Keywords: African American; adolescents; family mealtime; obesity; parenting.