Connections between Children’s Eating Habits, Mental Health, and Parental Stress

Table 3

Descriptives of quantitative data for children (BMI score, Gen Anx, Sep Anx, and Tot Anx) and of CEBQ, PSI-SF, CBCL subscales, and total scores divided for mothers and fathers. Cronbach’s alphas and bivariate correlations with MC scores are also reported. Fathers’ values are reported in parentheses.

	Mean	SD	Skewness	Kurtosis	Cronbach’s alphas	Correlations with MC
Children
BMI scores	18.61	3.56	0.89	0.21
Gen Anx	3.94	1.89	0.11	−0.46	0.47
Sep Anx	4.44	2.17	0.06	−0.20	0.53
Tot Anx	8.31	3.29	0.19	−0.14	0.60
Parents CEBQ subscales
FR	10.02 (6.81)	7.21 (4.49)	0.18 (0.27)	−1.67 (−1.49)	0.69 (0.68)	−0.36(−0.04)
EOE	7.96 (7.88)	3.82 (4.41)	−0.45 (−0.22)	−1.12 (−1.49)	0.75 (0.74)	−0.18 (−0.24)
EF	7.14 (5.43)	5.08 (3.98)	0.49 (0.77)	−1.29 (−0.84)	0.58 (0.56)	−0.20 (0.12)
DD	7.15 (6.48)	2.58 (2.23)	−0.70 (−0.50)	0.24 (−0.18)	0.59 (0.61)	−0.28(−0.08)
SR	6.52 (5.87)	3.71 (2.75)	0.70 (0.39)	−0.16 (−0.45)	0.46 (0.52)	0.02 (0.14)
SE	8.07 (6.09)	5.65 (4.42)	0.16 (0.43)	−1.64 (−1.44)	0.62 (0.68)	−0.01 (0.12)
EUE	7.45 (7.52)	2.62 (2.73)	−0.79 (−0.94)	0.10 (0.20)	0.54 (0.29)	−0.22(−0.15)
FF	10.73 (10.55)	5.19 (4.79)	0.44 (0.50)	−0.47 (−0.38)	0.78 (0.80)	−0.13 (−0.24)
PSI-SF subscales and total score
PD	14.41 (11.07)	8.97 (7.42)	0.51 (0.65)	−0.71 (−0.66)	0.86 (0.85)	−0.42(−0.27)
PDCI	9.37 (7.67)	7.12 (5.67)	0.71 (0.84)	−0.69 (−0.43)	0.88 (0.84)	−0.30 (−0.19)
DC	12.67 (9.84)	7.88 (6.40)	0.34 (0.35)	−1.00 (−0.95)	0.86 (0.85)	−0.35(−0.19)
Tot PSI	28.10 (21.28)	14.64 (11.20)	0.11 (0.02)	−1.00 (−1.11)	0.94 (0.93)	−0.43(−0.25)
CBCL 6/18 subscales and total score
INT	3.63 (2.68)	2.98 (2.00)	1.37 (1.41)	0.91 (1.54)	0.58 (0.66)	−0.30(−0.08)
SOM	3.25 (2.36)	2.85 (1.98)	1.26 (1.52)	0.43 (1.70)	0.69 (0.62)	−0.10 (0.01)
ANX	8.54 (6.07)	5.09 (3.90)	−0.18 (0.24)	−1.23 (−0.94)	0.74 (0.76)	−0.26(−0.08)
SOC	6.68 (5.23)	4.82 (3.69)	0.27 (0.32)	−1.20 (−1.13)	0.81 (0.78)	−0.36(−0.19)
IDE	2.49 (1.99)	2.22 (1.68)	1.61 (2.13)	1.25 (4.04)	0.45 (0.53)	−0.25(−0.20)
ATT	8.21 (7.64)	4.72 (3.98)	−0.15 (−0.15)	−1.30 (−0.86)	0.64 (0.69)	−0.39(−0.17)
DEV	2.28 (2.09)	1.55 (1.44)	1.16 (1.82)	0.34 (3.04)	0.29 (0.14)	−0.31(−0.25)
AGG	11.48 (9.10)	6.21 (4.44)	−0.31 (−0.41)	−1.28 (−0.80)	0.78 (0.74)	−0.34(−0.05)
OTHER	3.16 (3.39)	3.16 (2.49)	0.68 (1.03)	−0.50 (0.29)	0.30 (0.45)	−0.38(−0.13)
INT-CBCL	11.29 (12.68)	6.70 (7.06)	−0.24 (−0.55)	−1.43 (−1.17)	0.80 (0.83)	−0.26(−0.06)
EXT-CBCL	11.62 (10.80)	6.02 (5.19)	−0.30 (−0.52)	−1.18 (−0.85)	0.80 (0.75)	−0.37(−0.11)
Tot CBCL	19.02 (16.28)	11.87 (10.7)	0.15 (0.20)	−1.40 (−1.45)	0.88 (0.89)	−0.38(−0.12)
MC	34.45 (34.06)	4.97 (5.38)	−0.13 (0.16)	−0.57 (−0.89)	0.62 (0.51)

Note: BMI: body mass index, Gen Anx: general anxiety level (in children), Sep Anx: separation anxiety (in children), Tot Anx: global score of anxiety (in children), CEBQ: children’s eating behavior questionnaire, FR: food responsiveness. EOE: emotional overeating, EF: enjoyment of food, DD: desire to drink, SR: satiety responsiveness, SE: slowness in eating, EUE: emotional undereating, FF: food fussiness, PSI-SF: parenting stress index-short form, PD: parental stress, PDCI: parent-child dysfunctional interaction, DC: difficult child, Tot PSI: global score of the PSI-SF scale, CBCL: child behavior check list, INT: introversion, SOM: psychosomatic disorders, ANX: anxiety and depression, SOC: socialization, IDE: ideation, ATT: attention, DEV: deviant behavior, AGG: aggression and hyperactivity, OTHER: other problems, INT-CBCL: internalizing CBCL symptoms, EXT-CBCL: externalizing CBCL symptoms, Tot CBCL: global CBCL score, and MC: Marlowe–Crowne scale for social desirability.