Research report The influence of parents’ dietary beliefs and behaviours on children’s dietary beliefs and behaviours: The CYKIDS study Chrystalleni Lazarou a, *, Theano Kalavana b , Antonia-Leda Matalas a a Harokopio University, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Athens, Greece b University of Cyprus, Department of Psychology, Nicosia, Cyprus Introduction Family environment and especially parents, exert important influences on the development and shaping of young children’s eating habits and weight status (Clark, Goyder, Bissell, Blank, & Peters, 2007; Davison & Birch, 2001; Patrick & Nicklas, 2005). Understanding the possible mechanisms by which these influences are mediated, may give useful insights into how children’s food preferences are acquired and for planning of successful public health programs related to the promotion of good dietary habits, obesity prevention and intervention among children. Possible mechanisms that have been proposed via which parents may exert their influence on shaping their children’s dietary habits are modelling, child-feeding practices such as restriction or restraint and the general parenting style (Davison & Birch, 2001; Lederman et al., 2004; Savage, Fisher, & Birch, 2007). In addition, another potential pathway by which parents may exert their influence on their children’s dietary patterns, which has not been investigated, is by influencing their children’s dietary beliefs and behaviours (DBB), i.e. commonly held beliefs and behaviours regarding diet, nutrition and body image. The impact that parents might have on their children’s DBB, is important since cognitive schemas are developed during child- hood and social psychology places high importance to the role of cognitive schemas and ideas for the development and shaping of children’s dietary preferences and habits (Loewen & Pliner, 1999), which ultimately may influence their weight status and other markers of well-being. Thus, it would be of interest to investigate this aspect of parental influence on the shaping of their children’s DBB. Subjects and methods Study population The study was nation-wide and covered all the freely accessed districts of the Republic of Cyprus. A total of 1589 children of 4th, 5th and 6th grade (9–13 years, x = 11  0.98) in 24 primary schools were randomly identified for potential inclusion; 1140 agreed to participate (72% participation rate), representing 3.7% of the total population. Appetite xxx (2008) xxx–xxx ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 5 February 2008 Received in revised form 22 May 2008 Accepted 21 June 2008 Keywords: Dietary beliefs Dietary behaviours Children Parents Cyprus ABSTRACT We investigated the association between parental dietary beliefs and behaviours (DBB) and those of their children behaviours. Data were derived from a national cross-sectional study using multistage sampling design, among 1140 children (9–13 years). Principal component analysis was employed to extract the main factors out of eight variables assessing children’s dietary beliefs and behaviours (N = 991); those eight factors were then regressed, on 16 dependent variables, describing different parental dietary beliefs and behaviours, adjusted for potential confounders. Three factors emerged as important in explaining the variance in children’s dietary beliefs and behaviours: ‘‘guilty about eating’’ (factor 1), ‘‘concerned about own body weight’’ (factor 2) and ‘‘eating all my food’’ (factor 3). Children with types 1–3 behaviour: were 30% more likely to have parents who did not control what and how much their child ate, have parents who are 40% more likely to think that their child is overweight/obese and seem to have more availability of high fat foods, respectively. Breastfeeding was associated with the acquisition of positive dietary beliefs and behaviours by children, independently of child’s age, gender, place of residence, socio- economic status, diet quality, and child’s and parents’ obesity status. We propose that parents are likely to exert their influence in shaping eating habits and subsequently obesity development in their children, by influencing their children’s dietary beliefs and behaviours. ß 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: 28 Kronos Street, 2369 Ayios Dhometios, Nicosia, Cyprus. E-mail address: stalolaz@logosnet.cy.net (C. Lazarou). G Model APPET-655; No of Pages 7 Please cite this article in press as: Lazarou, C, et al., The influence of parents’ dietary beliefs and behaviours on children’s dietary beliefs and behaviours: The CYKIDS study, Appetite (2008), doi:10.1016/j.appet.2008.06.006 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Appetite journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/appet 0195-6663/$ – see front matter ß 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2008.06.006