Motivation and Independent Persistence in Childhood Food Allergy

Childhood food allergy requires parents to be protective to prevent accidental exposure to potentially fatal allergens. Over time, this protective parenting style may become overgeneralized and negatively impact food allergic children's development of self-regulatory persistence. Video-recorded sessions of 66 food allergic children and 67 healthy age-matched controls (ages 3-7) working on two puzzles alongside their mothers were coded for both maternal and child behaviors. Maternal involvement, children's overall persistence, and children's independent persistence were calculated. Questionnaires of parenting style completed by mothers were also included in analyses. As expected, children's persistence on both the easy and difficult puzzles significantly increased with children's age. However, the food allergic and healthy control groups did not significantly differ in maternal involvement, overall persistence, or independent persistence. Further, exploratory moderation analyses were not supported. Future research should continue to explore parenting behaviors and children's self-regulation in childhood food allergy