The Relationship Between Parenting Styles and College Student Eating Habits
Location
FA-202
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Parents play a crucial role in children's growth and development such as emotional development, self-esteem and risk of obesity. This study will examine the influence of different parenting styles on college student’s self-reported current eating habits. Previous research has shown a relationship between parenting style and children’s eating habits; specifically, how authoritative parenting is associated with healthier eating behaviors and authoritarian and permissive parenting styles are related to unhealthy dietary choices. However, few studies have examined the influence of parenting styles beyond childhood or adolescence and specifically, on a college student’s eating habits. A Qualtrics survey will be used and approximately 100 college students will participate. Participants will be asked to respond to a 20-item parenting style survey and then to a 22-item current eating habits survey. Parenting style will be measured by a modified version of the Parenting Style Scale (Saunders et al., 2012). To measure current eating habits, participants will be asked to respond to a modified version of the Healthy and Unhealthy Eating Behavior Scale (Guertin et al., 2020) which consists of two subscales, healthy and unhealthy eating. Participants will reflect on their food consumption in the past week. Lastly, demographic questions such as age, gender, ethnicity, frequency of family mealtime as a child, and parental status will also be asked. The data will be analyzed using a Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Projected results will show that authoritarian parenting style will be related to poor dietary habits in adulthood, whereas the authoritative parenting style will be related with healthier dietary behaviors in adulthood.
Faculty Sponsor
Amanda Dykema-Engblade, Northeastern Illinois University
The Relationship Between Parenting Styles and College Student Eating Habits
FA-202
Parents play a crucial role in children's growth and development such as emotional development, self-esteem and risk of obesity. This study will examine the influence of different parenting styles on college student’s self-reported current eating habits. Previous research has shown a relationship between parenting style and children’s eating habits; specifically, how authoritative parenting is associated with healthier eating behaviors and authoritarian and permissive parenting styles are related to unhealthy dietary choices. However, few studies have examined the influence of parenting styles beyond childhood or adolescence and specifically, on a college student’s eating habits. A Qualtrics survey will be used and approximately 100 college students will participate. Participants will be asked to respond to a 20-item parenting style survey and then to a 22-item current eating habits survey. Parenting style will be measured by a modified version of the Parenting Style Scale (Saunders et al., 2012). To measure current eating habits, participants will be asked to respond to a modified version of the Healthy and Unhealthy Eating Behavior Scale (Guertin et al., 2020) which consists of two subscales, healthy and unhealthy eating. Participants will reflect on their food consumption in the past week. Lastly, demographic questions such as age, gender, ethnicity, frequency of family mealtime as a child, and parental status will also be asked. The data will be analyzed using a Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Projected results will show that authoritarian parenting style will be related to poor dietary habits in adulthood, whereas the authoritative parenting style will be related with healthier dietary behaviors in adulthood.