Maternal Negative Parenting and Children’s Eating Behavior: The Mediating Role of Social Anxiety

Wenbing Shi,1,* Kang Zhao,1,* Lidong Huang,1 Qianqi Liu,2 Linghui Yang,2 Caiyun Hou,3 Huiting Tang,1 Ting Xu,1 Hanfei Zhu,1 Qin Xu1 1School of Nursing, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Child Health Care, Children’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Xuanwu District Xinjiekou Community Health Service Center, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Qin Xu, School of Nursing, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected] Hanfei Zhu, School of Nursing, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Eating behavior is essential to school-age children’s physical and psychological well-being. Parenting style plays a critical role in shaping these behaviors, and social anxiety may be an underlying mechanism linking the two.Objective: This study aimed to examine whether social anxiety mediates the association between parenting style and eating behavior among school-age children.Materials and Methods: Between August 2022 and February 2023, a cross-sectional study was conducted involving 1016 children aged 6 to 12 and their parents. Participants completed the Parenting Style Scale, the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, and the Social Anxiety Scale for Children. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to assess associations between variables. Structural equation modeling and the Bootstrap method were used to test mediation effects.Results: Children’s eating behavior was positively correlated with maternal negative parenting style and negatively correlated with maternal warmth and understanding. Social anxiety partially mediated the effect of maternal negative parenting on eating behavior, accounting for 15.1% of the total effect.Conclusion: Maternal negative parenting may increase children’s social anxiety, which in turn contributes to poor eating behavior. Interventions promoting positive parenting and greater paternal involvement could reduce children’s anxiety and foster healthier dietary habits.Keywords: eating behavior, parenting style, social anxiety, school-age children, mediating role