Paternal Education Level and Emotional Regulation in Parental Feeding were Associated with Cognitive Performance in a Sample of Preschoolers in Selangor
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2019.1120.1127Keywords:
Cognitive performance, eating styles, mental health, parental feeding practices, preschoolersAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to determine factors associated with cognitive performance among preschoolers in Selangor. Materials and Methods: A total of 167 preschoolers (80 boys and 87 girls) and their parents from eight selected kindergartens were included in this study. Information on socio-demographic background, children's eating styles and parental feeding practices was provided by parents. A Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (R-CPM) was used to assess the cognitive performance of preschoolers. The BMI-for-age (BAZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and weight-for-age (WAZ) of preschoolers were determined based on their measured body weight and height. Results: A majority of the preschoolers attained average cognitive performance levels (95.6±12.1). Bivariate results showed that a high number of parental years of schooling (father: r = 0.154, p<0.05; mother: r = 0.155, p<0.05), a high monthly household income (rs = 0.170, p<0.05), high satiety responsiveness (r = 0.165, p< 0.05) and high emotional regulation in parental feeding (r = 0.170, p<0.05) were associated with better cognitive performance of preschoolers. In multivariate analysis, fathers who attained a higher number of years of schooling (β = 0.155) and parents with higher emotional regulation in parental feeding (β = 0.171) contributed to better cognitive performance among preschoolers. Conclusion: Parents play important roles in improving the cognitive performance of their children. Therefore, parental involvement in future health promotion programs, particularly in feeding practices, is needed to improve the cognitive performance of preschoolers.
References
Wallin, A., P. Kettunen, P.M. Johansson, I.H. Jonsdottir and C. Nilsson et al., 2018. Cognitive medicine-A new approach in health care science. BMC Psychiatry, Vol. 18.
Hughes, D. and J. Bryan, 2003. The assessment of cognitive performance in children: Considerations for detecting nutritional influences. Nutr. Rev., 61: 413-422.
UNICEF., 2012. A brief review of the social and economic returns to investing in children. https://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/index_53294.html
Martin, L.T., G.M. Fitzmaurice, D.J. Kindlon and S.L. Buka, 2004. Cognitive performance in childhood and early adult illness: A prospective cohort study. J. Epidemiol. Community Health, 58: 674-679.
Batty, G.D., E.L. Mortensen and M. Osler, 2005. Childhood IQ in relation to later psychiatric disorder: Evidence from a Danish birth cohort study. Br. J. Psychiatry, 187: 180-181.
Hart, C., M. Taylor, G.D. Smith, L. Whalley and J. Starr et al., 2003. Childhood IQ, social class, deprivation and their relationships with mortality and morbidity risk in later life: Prospective observational study linking the scottish mental survey 1932 and the midspan studies. Psychosomatic Med., 65: 877-883.
Maldonado, E.F., F.J. Fernandez, M.V. Trianes, K. Wesnes and O. Petrini et al., 2008. Cognitive performance and morning levels of salivary cortisol and α-amylase in children reporting high vs. low daily stress perception. Spanish J. Psychol., 11: 3-15.
Whalley, L.J. and I.J. Deary, 2011. Longitudinal cohort study of childhood IQ and survival up to age 76. BMJ., Vol. 322.
Sirin, S.R., 2005. Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review of research. Rev. Educ. Res., 75: 417-453.
Christensen, D.L., L.A. Schieve, O. Devine and C. Drews-Botsch, 2014. Socioeconomic status, child enrichment factors, and cognitive performance among preschool-age children: Results from the follow-up of growth and development experiences study. Res. Dev. Disabilities, 35: 1789-1801.
Lemos, G.C., L.S. Almeida and R. Colom, 2011. Intelligence of adolescents is related to their parents’ educational level but not to family income. Pers. Individual Differences, 50: 1062-1067.
Cianci, L., A. Orsini, S. Hulbert and L. Pezzuti, 2013. The influence of parents’ education in the Italian standardization sample of the WISC-III. Learn. Individual Differences, 28: 47-53.
Nasir, M.T.M., A.K. Norimah, A.S. Hazizi, A.R. Nurliyana, S.H. Loh and I. Suraya, 2012. Child feeding practices, food habits, anthropometric indicators and cognitive performance among preschoolers in peninsular Malaysia. Appetite, 58: 525-530.
Crookston, B.T., R. Forste, C. McClellan, A. Georgiadis and T.B. Heaton, 2014. Factors associated with cognitive achievement in late childhood and adolescence: The young lives cohort study of children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and vietnam. BMC Pediatr., Vol. 14.
Grantham-McGregor, S. and H. Baker-Henningham, 2005. Review of the evidence linking protein and energy to mental development. Public Health Nutr., 8: 1191-1201.
Benton, D. and ILSI Europe a.i.s.b.l., 2008. The influence of children’s diet on their cognition and behavior. Eur. J. Nutr., 47: 25-37.
Zaini, M.Z., C.T. Lim, W.Y. Low and F. Harun, 2005. Effects of nutritional status on academic performance of Malaysian primary school children. Asia-Pac. J. Public Health, 17: 81-87.
Perignon, M., M. Fiorentino, K. Kuong, K. Burja and M. Parker et al., 2014. Stunting, poor iron status and parasite infection are significant risk factors for lower cognitive performance in Cambodian school-aged children. PLoS One, Vol. 9, No. 11.
Gunstad, J., R.H. Paul, R.A. Cohen, D.F. Tate, M.B. Spitznagel and E. Gordon, 2007. Elevated body mass index is associated with executive dysfunction in otherwise healthy adults. Comprehen. Psychiatry, 48: 57-61.
Reinert, K.R.S., E.K. Po'e and S.L. Barkin, 2013. The relationship between executive function and obesity in children and adolescents : A systematic literature review. J. Obesity, Vol. 2013.
Datar, A. and R. Sturm, 2006. Childhood overweight and elementary school outcomes. Int. J. Obesity, 30: 1449-1460.
Hamid, J.J.M., A.K. Mitra, H. Hasmiza, C.D. Pim, L.O. Ng and W.M.W. Manan, 2011. Effect of gender and nutritional status on academic achievement and cognitive function among primary school children in a rural district in Malaysia. Malaysian J. Nutr., 17: 189-200.
El Hioui, M., A.O.T. Ahami, Y. Aboussaleh and S. Rusinek, 2016. The relationship between nutritional status and educational achievements in the rural school children of Morocco. J. Neurol. Neurol. Disord., Vol. 3, No. 1.
Higgs, S., 2007. Impairment of cognitive performance in dietary restrained women when imagining eating is not affected by anticipated consumption. Eating Behav., 8: 157-161.
Westenhoefer, J., D. Engel, C. Holst, J. Lorenz and M. Peacock et al., 2013. Cognitive and weight-related correlates of flexible and rigid restrained eating behaviour. Eating Behav., 14: 69-72.
Brunstrom, J.M., C.J. Davison and G.L. Mitchell, 2005. Dietary restraint and cognitive performance in children. Appetite, 45: 235-241.
Raven, J., 2000. The raven's progressive matrices: Change and stability over culture and time. Cognit. Psychol., 41: 1-48.
WHO., 2006. Who child growth standards: Length/height-forage, weight-for-age, weight-for-length, weight-for-height and body mass index-for-age. Methods and Development, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/.
De Onis, M., A.W. Onyango, E. Borghi, A. Siyam, C. Nishida and J. Siekmann, 2007. Development of a WHO growth reference for school-aged children and adolescents. Bull. World Health Organiz., 85: 660-667.
Wardle, J., C.A. Guthrie, S. Sanderson and L. Rapoport, 2001. Development of the children’s eating behaviour questionnaire. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry, 42: 963-970.
Tay, C.W., Y.S. Chin, S.T. Lee, I. Khouw and B.K. Poh, 2016. Association of eating behavior with nutritional status and body composition in primary school–aged children. Asia Pac. J. Public Health, Vol. 28.
Shohaimi, S., W.Y. Wei and Z.M. Shariff, 2014. Confirmatory factor analysis of the malay version comprehensive feeding practices questionnaire tested among mothers of primary school children in Malaysia. Sci. World J., Vol. 2014.
Ministry of Human Resources, 2010. Malaysia Standard Classification of Occupations 2008. 3rd Edn., Ministry of Human Resources, Putrajaya, ISBN: 978-967-5236-28-0, Pages: 538.
Khanam, R. and S. Nghiem, 2016. Family income and child cognitive and noncognitive development in Australia: does money matter? Demography, 53: 597-621.
Burger, K., 2010. How does early childhood care and education affect cognitive development? An international review of the effects of early interventions for children from different social backgrounds. Early Childhood Res. Q., 25: 140-165.
Bertoia, M.L., K.J. Mukamal, L.E. Cahill, T. Hou and D.S. Ludwig, 2015. Changes in intake of fruits and vegetables and weight change in United States men and women followed for up to 24 years: Analysis from three prospective cohort studies. Plos Med., Vol. 12, No. 9.
Dalton, M., S. Hollingworth, J. Blundell and G. Finlayson, 2015. Weak satiety responsiveness is a reliable trait associated with hedonic risk factors for overeating among women. Nutrients, 7: 7421-7436.
Graziano, P.A., R.D. Reavis, S.P. Keane and S.D. Calkins, 2007. The role of emotion regulation in children’s early academic success. J. Sch. Psychol., 45: 3-19.
Howse, R.B., S.D. Calkins, A.D. Anastopoulos, S.P. Keane and T.L. Shelton, 2003. Regulatory contributors to children’s kindergarten achievement. Early Educ. Dev., 14: 101-120.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
