A METAANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP IN FOOD PREFERENCES BETWEEN PARENTS AND CHILDREN

Acknowledging the interaction of culture, genetics, and socialization among family members, one would expect to find a strong resemblance in food preferences between parents and children. The present investigat ion employed the technique of meta-analysis to determine the existence and strength of a correlation in parent-child food preferences. A sea rch of the literature identified seven studies meeting the criteria fo r inclusion; of these, five studies had sufficient data to be included in the analysis. The weighted effect size was calculated at 0.19 for mother-child pairs and 0.14 for father-child pairs. The overall averag e weighted effect size was 0.17, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.0 94 to 0.240. This demonstrated a significant correlation, of small mag nitude, in the resemblance in food preferences between parents and chi ldren. The strength of correlation is similar when maternal and patern al influence is examined separately. The findings of this meta-analysi s indicate that the similarity in food preferences between children an d their parents would appear to be of small significance as a factor i n predicting children's food preferences.