Are Parental Rules Associated with Low-Income Rural Children’s Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables in the Midwest?

Parents of low-income preschool-aged children (N = 389) living in rural areas within seven Midwestern states were interviewed about their rules for children’s eating habits and children’s fruit and vegetable consumption. Multinomial logistic regression was conducted to test the association between parental rules and children’s fruit and vegetable consumption while also controlling for parents’ marital status. Children were 6 times more likely to consume zero daily servings of fruit if their parent had a high level of parental rules holding all other covariates constant. The amount of parental rules did not have a significant relationship with children’s vegetable intake. However, children living in single-parent households were more likely to consume more servings of vegetables per day than children living in married couple households. These results demonstrate that type of parent involvement and family structure may play an important role in influencing young children’s eating behaviors.