(P28-033-23) Monitoring Is an Effective Parenting Practice To Encourage African American Adolescents To Meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Objectives: This study aims to examine the role played by monitoring parenting practice in the eating behavior of African American adolescents in order to allow them to meet the daily minimum of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) for consumption of all MyPlate food items.

Methods: The study design was cross-sectional. An online survey by Qualtrics was used to collect the data from 211 African American parents and their adolescents (10-17 years old). Parents answered 10 questions to identify the degree of their monitoring practice. The 2012 Youth Adolescent Food Frequency Questionnaire was utilized to collect data about adolescent food consumption. Spearman rank correlation coefficient, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and a stepwise logistic regression were performed.

Results: A positive relationship between monitoring and consumption of all MyPlate food items was seen. In addition, parental monitoring scores were significantly high among adolescents who met the DGA for all MyPlate items except for protein consumption. Based on the regression and while controlling for all the possible effective cofactors, for every one score increase in monitoring practice, adolescents were approximately 3.8, 2.78, 2.63, and 2.19 times more likely to consume the DGA recommended daily minimum amounts of fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy, respectively.

Conclusions: Monitoring is an effective food-related parenting practice that can be adopted by African American parents in order to encourage their adolescents to adopt healthy eating behavior to meet the DGA recommended daily minimum amounts of food.

Funding Sources: NIFA