Association between parental resource depletion and parent use of specific food parenting practices: An ecological momentary assessment study.

The resource depletion model proposes that self-control is a limited resource that may become depleted after repeated use. This study aimed to improve our understanding of the correlates of resource depletion in parents, examine the association between resource depletion and use of coercive food parenting practices, and explore the relationship between resource depletion and stress. Children aged 5-9 and their parents (n = 631 dyads) were recruited from primary care clinics in a large metropolitan area in the United States in 2016-2019. Ecological momentary assessment was carried out over seven days with parents. Frequency tabulations and descriptive statistics were calculated to examine the overall, between-participant, and within-participant frequency of resource depletion, stress, and coercive food parenting practices. Resource depletion was higher among mothers (as compared to fathers) and native born participants (as compared to immigrants). Resource depletion was found to decrease significantly with each increase in household income level and perceived co-parenting support was negatively associated with resource depletion. Greater resource depletion earlier in the day was positively associated with coercive food parenting practices (e.g., food restriction, pressure-to-eat) at dinner the same night. Further, prior day resource depletion was associated with greater pressure-to-eat the next day. Parents with lower chronic stress were found to engage in pressuring when experiencing higher depletion. Clinicians and public health professionals should be aware of the role the resource depletion can play in parent's use of specific food parenting practices and seek to provide parents with the support they need to manage the cognitive load they are experiencing.

Associations between parental engagement in disordered eating behaviors and use of specific food parenting practices within a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse sample.

Parents influence their children's eating behaviors through their use of food parenting practices, or goal-directed behaviors that guide both what and how they feed their child. Prior research suggests that parents who engage in disordered eating behaviors are more likely to use coercive food parenting practices, which are known to be associated with the development of maladaptive eating behaviors in young people. The present study sought to extend our current understanding by examining the association between parental engagement in disordered eating behaviors and use of a broader range of food parenting practices in a socioeconomically and racially diverse, population-based sample (n = 1306 parents/child dyads). Parents self-reported their disordered eating behaviors, as well as use of coercive and structure-based food parenting practices. A series of separate linear regression models, adjusting for parent and child sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics, revealed that parents engaging in restrictive disordered eating behaviors and binge eating reported significantly higher levels of coercive food parenting practices, including pressure-to-eat, restriction, threats and bribes, and using food to control negative emotions. Parental engagement in restrictive disordered eating behaviors was also associated with significantly higher use of food rules and limits. Overall, parental engagement in compensatory disordered eating behaviors was significantly associated with higher levels of restrictive and emotional feeding practices, as well as with lower levels of monitoring. Given prior research supporting a relationship between exposure to coercive control food parenting practices and the development of maladaptive eating behaviors in young people, results from the current study provide support for the role that food parenting practices might play in the intergenerational transmission of disordered eating behaviors.

Leveraging ecological momentary assessment to understand variability in food parenting practices within a low-income racially/ethnically diverse sample of parents of preschoolers.

Children's eating behaviors are shaped significantly by their home food environment, including exposure to food parenting practices. The current study leveraged ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to describe how food parenting practices used to feed preschoolers (n = 116) differed across contextual factors around eating, including type of eating occasion (i.e., meals vs. snacks), day of the week (i.e., weekend vs. weekday), who initiated the meal (parent vs. child), emotional climate of the eating occasion. Parent perceptions of how well the eating occasion went, including how well the child ate and whether the food parenting practices worked as intended were also explored. Parent use of specific food parenting practices, situated within four higher-order domains (i.e., structure, autonomy support, coercive control, indulgent), was found to differ by type of eating occasion; parents engaged in a higher proportion of structure practices at meals than at snacks. Use of specific food parenting practices differed by mealtime emotional climate; parent use of structure and autonomy support was associated with eating occasions described as relaxed, enjoyable, neutral, and fun. Finally, parent perception of how well the child ate differed by use of specific food parenting practices; during eating occasions when parent's felt their child ate "not enough", they used less autonomy support and more coercive control compared to eating occasions where the child ate "enough and a good balance." Leveraging EMA allowed for increased understanding of the variability in food parenting practices and contextual factors. Findings may be utilized to inform the development of larger-scale studies seeking to understand why parents choose specific approaches to feeding their children, as well as the impact of various approaches to child feeding on child health outcomes.

A descriptive assessment of a broad range of food-related parenting practices in a diverse cohort of parents of preschoolers using the novel Real-Time Parent Feeding Practices Survey.

BACKGROUND: Much of the research to-date on food parenting has evaluated typical use of various parent feeding practices via questionnaire. The Real-Time Parent Feeding Practices Measurement survey was developed for use within an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) protocol to capture momentary use of parent feeding practices in real-time. METHODS: This manuscript describes the development of the EMA-based Real-Time Parent Feeding Practices survey and highlights initial descriptive data on the real-time use of 22 individual parent feeding practices (e.g., pressure-to-eat, guided choices, etc.) as reported via EMA by parents of preschool-aged children (n = 116) over a 10-day data collection time period. A total of 3382 eating occasions were reported, with an average of 29.2 reported eating occasions per participant. RESULTS: Results revealed that most participants used a variety of food-related parenting practices day-to-day that span four higher-order domains: structure, autonomy support, coercive control and indulgence. Supportive feeding practices, defined as those from the structure and autonomy support domains, were reported most frequently, with one or more structure behavior (e.g., specific mealtime rules/routines) was used at 88.9% of reported eating occasions and one or more autonomy support behavior (e.g., involvement of the child in meal preparation) was used at 87.3% of eating occasions. While unsupportive feeding practices, defined as practices from within the coercive control (e.g., pressure-to-eat) and indulgent (e.g., anticipatory catering) feeding domains, were reported less frequently, one or more behaviors from each of these domains were still reported at over 25% of all eating occasions. CONCLUSIONS: Results of the current study take a next step towards deepening our understanding of the use of a broad range of food-related parenting practices in real-time. Findings revealed that the vast majority of practices used by parents fall within the structure and autonomy support domains. However, most parents did not exclusively use supportive or unsupportive practices, rather they used a combination of food-related parenting practices across all domains. Future research should continue to explore a broad range of food-related parenting practices and seek to understand how parent approaches to feeding are associated with long-term child outcomes, including dietary intake, food preferences, and eating patterns.

COVID-19 pandemic shifts in food-related parenting practices within an ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of families of preschool-aged children.

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on food parenting practices used by parents of young children. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) was used to evaluate parents' use of coercive, indulgent, structured, and autonomy supportive food parenting practices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among a diverse racial/ethnic sample (n = 72) of parents of preschool-aged children. The impact of parent and child mood/behavior on use of specific food parenting practices was also evaluated during both time periods. Results revealed that most parents of preschoolers use a variety of food parenting practices, including coercive control, indulgence, structure, and autonomy support practices. The use of structured and autonomy supportive practices, however, decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the types of practices used by parents were contextually associated with the mood of the parent as well as child mood. Parent negative mood during COVID-19 was associated with higher levels of coercive control and indulgence and lower levels of structure, whereas child positive child mood was associated with greater use of autonomy supportive practices. These findings suggest that effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on family dynamics around feeding young children include shifts away from theoretically supportive approaches to parenting and highlight the roles of parent and child mood/behavior as potentially important momentary influences on food parenting during this time. Public health practitioners and clinicians working with parents of young children during COVID-19, and in years to come, should consider the potential impact of parental mood and stress, as well as child mood and behaviors. Additional research is needed to better understand how to best help parents maintain supportive feeding practices in the face of challenging situations.

Is the childhood home food environment a confounder of the association between child maltreatment exposure and adult body mass index?

Childhood maltreatment is consistently associated with adult obesity, leading to calls for tailored weight interventions for people with maltreatment histories. However, it is possible that the maltreatment-obesity association is spurious and driven by unmeasured confounding, in which case such interventions would be misplaced. The home food environment in childhood is a potential confounder, but its role in the association of maltreatment with obesity has not been examined. We used a longitudinal dataset (Project EAT) to examine the association of adult retrospective reports of maltreatment history in childhood (1+ types of maltreatment before age 18 years) with previously-collected prospective childhood reports of home food environment characteristics (availability of healthy foods, availability of sweet/salty snack food, family meal frequency, and food insufficiency). We then estimated the association between maltreatment and adult body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) with and without adjustment for these home food environment factors. After adjustment for sociodemographics, maltreatment had a 0.84 kg/m2 (95% CI: 0.28, 1.41) higher BMI at age 24-39 years, compared to those with no maltreatment, after adjustment for sociodemographics, parenting style, and BMI in childhood. Additional adjustment for home food environment factors had little effect on this association (ß = 0.78 kg/m2; 95% CI: 0.21,1.35), suggesting limited confounding influence of the home food environment factors. Findings provide additional robust evidence that childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for obesity that may warrant tailored interventions.

Academic clinician frontline-worker wellbeing and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic experience: Were there gender differences?

Prior research suggests COVID-19 has amplified stress on Academic Clinician Frontline-Workers (ACFW). The aim of this paper is: (1) to better understand the experiences of ACFW during the COVID-19 pandemic including their mental-emotional wellbeing, academic productivity, clinical experiences, and (2) to examine any gender differences. A cross-sectional survey was administered to University of Minnesota/M Health Fairview systems' faculty February-June 2021. Of the 291 respondents, 156 were clinicians, with 91 (58 %) identifying as Frontline-Workers (ACFW). Faculty wellbeing was assessed using validated measures in addition to measures of productivity and sociodemographics. For example, ACFW reported a higher Work-Family Conflict (WFC) scores compared to non-ACFW (26.5 vs. 24.1, p = 0.057) but did not report higher Family-Work Conflict (FWC) scores (17.7 vs. 16.3, p = 0.302). Gender sub-analyses, revealed that women ACFW compared to men ACFW reported higher WFC scores (27.7 vs. 24.1, p = 0.021) and FWC (19.3 vs. 14.3, p = 0.004). Academically, ACFW reported submitting fewer grants and anticipated delays in promotion and tenure due to the COVID-19 (p = 0.035). Results suggest COVID-19 has exacerbated ACFW stress and gender inequities. Reports of anticipated delay in promotion for ACFW may pose a challenge for the long-term academic success of ACFW, especially women ACFW. In addition, women may experience higher FWC and WFC as compared to men. Schools of academic medicine should consider re-evaluating promotion/tenure processes and creating resources to support women ACFW as well as ACFW caregivers.

4''-O-(omega-Quinolylamino-alkylamino)propionyl derivatives of selected macrolides with the activity against the key erythromycin resistant respiratory pathogens.

Four macrolides-6-O-methyl-8a-aza-8a-homoerythromycin, clarithromycin, azithromycin and azithromycin 11,12-cyclic carbonate, have been selected for the construction of a series of new quinolone derivatives. The quinolone moiety is connected to the macrolide scaffold via a diaminoaklyl 4''-O-propionyl ester chain of varying length. At the terminus the linker is attached via one of the nitrogen atoms in the linker at C(6) or C(7) of the quinolone. Many of compounds described, particularly clarithromycin derivative 37, and azithromycin derivatives 48 and 55, exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against a wide range of clinically relevant macrolide-resistant organisms, with profiles superior to that of telithromycin, an enhanced spectrum ketolide.

Reporting of treatment fidelity in behavioural paediatric obesity intervention trials: a systematic review.

Behavioural interventions for paediatric obesity are promising, but detailed information on treatment fidelity (i.e. design, training, delivery, receipt and enactment) is needed to optimize the implementation of more effective interventions. Little is known about current practices for reporting treatment fidelity in paediatric obesity studies. This systematic review, in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, describes the methods used to report treatment fidelity in randomized controlled trials. Treatment fidelity was double-coded using the National Institutes of Health Fidelity Framework checklist. Three hundred articles (N = 193 studies) were included. Mean inter-coder reliability across items was 0.83 (SD = 0.09). Reporting of treatment design elements within the field was high (e.g. 77% of studies reported designed length of treatment session), but reporting of other domains was low (e.g. only 7% of studies reported length of treatment sessions delivered). Few reported gold standard methods to evaluate treatment fidelity (e.g. coding treatment content delivered). General study quality was associated with reporting of treatment fidelity (p < 0.01) as was the number of articles published for a given study (p < 0.01). The frequency of reporting treatment fidelity components has not improved over time (p = 0.26). Specific recommendations are made to support paediatric obesity researchers in leading health behaviour disciplines towards more rigorous measurement and reporting of treatment fidelity.

Synthesis and activity of analogues of SB-219383: novel potent inhibitors of bacterial tyrosyl tRNA synthetase.

SB-219383 is a naturally occurring antibiotic, which acts by inhibition of tyrosyl tRNA synthetase. Semi-synthetic derivatives of SB-219383 were prepared with the objective of elucidating the key features required for inhibition of tyrosyl tRNA synthetase in order to improve the antibacterial activity. Some ester and amide derivatives as well as monocyclic analogues exhibited sub-nanomolar inhibitory activity against tyrosyl tRNA synthetase.

Clarification of Cliff and Caruso (1998).

In response to N. Cliff and J. C. Caruso (1998), the author clarifies that it is the sum of the reliabilities of the components that remains invariant under rotation in reliable component analysis.

A Legitimate Case of Component Analysis of Ipsative Measures, and Partialling the Mean as an Alternative to Ipsatization.

Ipsatizing variable prior to component analysis, by subtracting the man score of each individual from all scores of that individual, has met with serious criticisms, both strategic and technical. On the other hand, the procedure is still popular in the study of personality, as a means of removing acquiescence variance. An attempt is made at reconciling these facts. Technical objections to component analysis of ipsatized variables, recently restated by Dunlap and Cornwall, are shown to be based on erroneous premises. A strategic objection leveled by Clemans does apply in a majority of cases, but has no bearing on the specific case of ipsatizing responses to personality questionnaires made up of opposite item pears. As an alternative to ipsatizing by subtraction of the mean, partialling the mean component is suggested as a more elegant procedure, allowing a breakdown of explained variance into variance due to the mean and to subequent components uncorrelated with the mean.

Some Relationships Between Descriptive Comparisons of Components from Different Studies.

This paper considers descriptive methods of comparing components from different studies, based on correlations between columns of component scores matrices, on congruence coefficients between columns of pattern, structure or component scores coefficient matrices, or on coefficients of invariance. Contrary to common belief, it is shown that coefficients of invariance are unrelated to correlations between component scores. On the other hand, having a perfect coefficient of invariance is shown to be equivalent to having a perfect congruence between corresponding columns of the component scores coefficient matrices. A similar but weaker relationship between the latter congruence and congruence between columns of pattern matrices is demonstrated.

Rotation to Perfect Congruence and the Cross Validation of Component Weights Across Populations.

This paper deals with strategies of congruence studies, aimed at evaluating recoverableness of a given set of components from a first population in a second population where the same variables have been used. Five decisions inherent to congruence studies are analysed in detail. Confirmatory evidence with respect to recoverableness can be obtained from an independent component analysis for the second population, parallel to that of the first population. Disconfirmatory evidence requires oblique rotation to perfect congruence, which can always be attained. Rotation to perfect congruence is advocated as a new strategy, in which amounts of variance explained are of major concern. The perfect congruence strategy can be applied to variable-component correlations and to weights. The latter approach is to be preferred for two reasons. First, rotating weights to perfect congruence can be easily understood as a cross-validation method, closely related to the well-known multiple group method. Second, this approach appears to give more satisfactory results in practical applications than are obtained from rotating variable-component correlations to perfect congruence.

The Kaiser, Hunka and Bianchini Factor Similarity Coefficients: A Cautionary Note.

Kaiser, Hunka and Bianchini (1971) have given a method to compare two matrices of factor loadings based on the same variables, but different groups of individuals. They suggest expressing the factor similarity by the elements of the rotation matrix that optimizes the sum of inner products between corresponding columns or rows of the matrices. The optimal rotation involved in this method is examined from a mathematical point of view and, on the basis of this, the method is shown to be invalid.

Scale Construction on the Basis of Components Analysis: A Comparison of Three Strategies.

Cattell suggested constructing scales on the basis of components analysis by assigning weights 1 to variables with high positive loadings on the components and -1 to variables with high negative loadings on the components. This strategy is compared with other strategies of scale construction, which assign weights 1 or -1 to variables with high weights for the components. The latter strategies appear to yield scales which have higher correlations with the corresponding component scores and lower correlations among them, but also are less homogeneous then scales constructed by the former strategy. It is concluded that the former strategy, which is very popular among practitioners, can continue to be used if homogeneity of scales is preferred to orthogonality of scales.

Convergence Properties of Certain Minres Algorithms.

Levin (1988) has challenged the convergence properties of the Harman and Jones (1966) method of Minres factor analysis. Levin claimed that convergence of the Harman and Jones method is not guaranteed and that a modified version of this method, with proven convergence, is to be preferred. In the present article it is shown that both claims are invalid. Monotone convergence of the Harman and Jones method is guaranteed whereas the modified version, proposed by Levin, may converge to an incorrect solution. Levin has also claimed that the rank-one version of the Harman and Jones method, as implemented in a method by Zegers and ten Berge (1983) lacks a valid convergence proof, and that a method suggested by Comrey and Ahumada (1964, 1965) should be used instead. It is shown that these claims, too, should be reversed.

A Fast and Simple computational Method of Minimum Residual Factor Analysis.

Some new procedures for minimum residual factor analysis are presented. First a successive method developed by Comrey is modified in order to guarantee convergence and to provide a way to handle Heywood cases. Next, this modified Comrey procedure is extended to a simultaneous procedure which is computationally simpler and faster than the Minres method developed by Harman and Jones. This latter method, however, satisfies a stronger necessary condition for the minimum of the sum of squared off-diagonal residuals. Some empirical results are presented. These are in accordance with the theoretical considerations; that is, the Harman and Jones procedure tends to be slower, but attains in general a lower value for the sum of squared off-diagonal residuals.

Inhibitors of bacterial tyrosyl tRNA synthetase: synthesis of four stereoisomeric analogues of the natural product SB-219383.

Synthetic analogues of the microbial metabolite SB-219383 have been synthesised with defined stereochemistry. Densely functionalised hydroxylamine containing amino acids were prepared by the addition of a glycine anion equivalent to sugar-derived cyclic nitrones. One of four stereoisomeric dipeptides incorporating these novel amino acids was found to be a potent and selective inhibitor of bacterial tyrosyl tRNA synthetase, suggesting analogous stereochemistry of the natural product.

Inhibitors of bacterial tyrosyl tRNA synthetase: synthesis of carbocyclic analogues of the natural product SB-219383.

Carbocyclic analogues of the microbial metabolite SB-219383 have been synthesised and evaluated as inhibitors of bacterial tyrosyl tRNA synthetase. One compound showed highly potent and selective nanomolar inhibition.