Author(s): Rayna Garcia, Briana Lopez, Jody Nicholson, Sheryl O. Hughes
The Caregiver Feeding Style Questionnaire (CFSQ), developed by Sheryl O. Hughes and colleagues (2005), has been well-established for use in determining various patterns of parent-child feeding. The measure consists of two subscales, parent-centered and child-centered questions, which categorize parents across two dimensions: demandingness and responsiveness. These dimensions determine parent feeding style across four types, 1) authoritative; 2) authoritarian; 3) indulgent, and 4) uninvolved, which closely align with parenting types identified by Baumrind (1967) and Maccoby & Martin (1983). CFSQ cutoff scores for demandingness and responsiveness have been established using five low-income samples (M = 2.82, and M = 1.16, respectively). However, due to geographic and sampling limitations, the current CFSQ cut-offs may misclassify individuals from different regions or cultures. For this reason, the current investigation seeks to (1) analyze a number of existing studies (k = 22) to determine categorical averages for parent feeding styles and demandingness/responsiveness scores across low-income samples from varying geographic locations, and (2) to determine the average effect size between BMI and demandingness/responsiveness scores; as well as calculate the median split by these dimensions. This ongoing investigation, expected to be completed by the end of April 2021, seeks to identify these disparities and highlight directions for future research. The authors believe that this review is imperative to providing more culturally sensitive guidelines for parent-feeding habits, and contributing to more effective interventions for these vulnerable populations.
