RESUMEN
El presente trabajo describe la evidencia empírica en cuanto a la relación entre prácticas parentales, alimentación saludable y medidas objetivas de composición corporal en la niñez preescolar en contextos europeos, estadounidenses y latinoamericanos. Se encuentran algunas concordancias en cuanto a la presión y la restricción para comer. Se proponen direcciones para el desarrollo de líneas de investigación en el contexto latinoamericano: a) realización de más estudios, con el fin de confirmar si las relaciones entre las variables de interés se mantienen o cambian; b) realizar estos estudios con muestras aleatorizadas y representativas, con medidas de autoreporte y observacionales, de las prácticas parentales de alimentación; c) exploración del rol mediador y moderador de variables culturales y sociales específicas del contexto latinoamericano.
This paper describes empirical evidence regarding the relationship between parental practices, healthy eating and objective measures of body composition in preschool children in European, American and Latin American contexts. Concordances are noted in terms of pressure and restriction to eat. Directions are proposed for the development of lines of research in the Latin American context: a) conducting more studies in order to confirm if the relations between the variables of interest are maintained or changed; b) conduct these studies with randomized and representative samples, with self-report and observational measures of parental feeding practices; c) exploration of mediator and moderator roles that cultural and social variables specific to the Latin American context have on the relationships between the variables of interest.
RESUMEN
Previous cross-cultural studies have found differences in food attitudes. For example, Americans are more concerned about weight gain than people from France and India. This study aimed to add on the literature on cross-cultural differences in food attitudes by comparing Euro-Americans with Costa Ricans on three different food attitudes: concern about gaining weight, food negativity, and the belief in the link between diet and health. This study also analyzes the implications of food attitudes on well-being. Specifically, within and across cultures, analyses were done to test the relationship between food attitudes and both anxiety and depression. Results showed that Costa Ricans are significantly less concerned about weight and less food negative than Euro-Americans. In further analyses an interaction was revealed, in which Costa Ricans that are high on weight concern but low on food negativity show lower levels of depression, compared to Euro-Americans. Results and implications for further research are discussed.