Parenting Approaches on Children Food Uptake and Nutrition Status in Kiambu County, Kenya
Loading...
Date
2024
Authors
Mutuura, Caroline Hilda Karambu
Kigaru, Dorcus Mbithe
Ndung’u, Zipporah W.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
EANSO
Abstract
Parental use of reward and punishment is a key to reinforcement or deterrence
of food choices among children an aspect that affects nutritional status
throughout an individual’s life span. Kenya has a population of 47,564,296
people according to demographic survey of Kenya 2019, of whom 1.4 % are
school-going children aged 6-years in Juja Sub-County of Kiambu, (Kenya
National Beural of Statistics,2019). Cross-sectional analytical research design
was adopted on 384 parent-child pairs, who were disproportionately sampled.
Researcher-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. SРSS
software version 26.0 was used to analyse the data with significance p<.05.
Anthropometry data was analysed using WHO Anthro-Plus Survey Analyzer
and compared to BMI-for-age (BAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ) and height-forage (HAZ) Scores for the target population. Pearson’s correlation (r) was used
to establish association. Boys were 48.0% while girls were 52.0% with a mean
age of 6.4± 0.1. Almost half the index children (45.1%) were born first. Mean
household size was 5.0± 1.66 with maternal mean age at 34± 4.9 years and
that of the fathers at 39± 4.8 years. The majority of mothers (73.0%) and
fathers (76.1%) had tertiary level of education with more fathers than the
mothers in the formal sector of employment, with a higher income. All (100%)
children reported being rewarded by receiving incentives like praise words
(60.1%), while majority of them (92.0%) reported being punished in multiple
ways by the mothers when they refused to feed yet a third of fathers (61.0%)
praised and gifted their children to feed. Prevalence of stunting (6.9%),
underweight (7.1%), wasting (7.2%), overweight (16.4%) and obesity (11.7%)
was observed in the study population. A positive strong significant
relationship (p=0.05, x2=5.2) between age of the mothers and punishment was
noted, also shouting threats, grounding, inflicting pain & withdrawal of
privileges (p=0.05, x2=9.6) was common among the married mothers. More
parents with tertiary education (74.6%) and higher incomes (40.5%) gifted and
gave special permissions which had a stronger positive relationship to food
choices (p=0.06, x2=4.33) and nutritional status (p=0.04, x2=5.9). Food
choices had a strong positive relationship to nutritional status (p=0.05) and so
did dietary diversity (p=0.6). Majority of the parents reported that the demographic characteristics (83.8%) and Socio-economic characteristics
(90.7%) affected their food choices as a household. Almost all mothers
(98.8%) and more than half of the fathers (55.4%) felt that rewarding and
punishing the study children in relation to food had an effect on their food
choices and approaches.
Description
Article
Keywords
Reward, Punishment, Food Choices, Dietary Diversity, Nutritional Status
Citation
Karambu, M., Kigaru, D., & Ndung’u, Z. (2024). Parenting Approaches on Children Food Uptake and Nutrition Status in Kiambu County, Kenya. International Journal of Advanced Research, 7(1), 122-133. https://doi.org/10.37284/ijar.7.1.1822