The Relation between Maternal Reflective Function and Feeding Strategies in Preschool Children of Qazvin

Children's eating behaviors are a very important issue that concerns many parents. The role of the mother in understanding the child's feelings and feeding strategies is one of the most important issues of mother-child interaction. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between reflective function and feeding styles of mothers of preschool children in Qazvin.

The present study is a correlational study. The statistical population of the study consists of mothers with children aged 0 to 5 years in Qazvin. To conduct the research, 163 participants were selected using voluntary sampling method. The research instruments included the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ) and Instrument for the identification of parental feeding strategies (ISS).  Research data were analyzed using canonical correlation analysis.

Two dimensions were identified. The first dimension was strongly influenced by the pre-mentallization and interest-curiosity subscales of maternal reflective function and the pressing, rewarding, and modeling subscales of the feeding styles. The second dimension was influenced by certainty and interest-curiosity subscales of maternal reflective function and modeling, monitoring, child's control, pressing and restriction subscales of the feeding styles.

The maternal reflective function plays an important role in determining her feeding styles. If mothers have better reflective function, they will use more functional methods to interact with the child in relation to nutrition and will show more flexibility in these methods.