• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.1-17
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between young children's picky eating behavior and mother's attitudes, beliefs and practices regarding the eating habits of children. Using a sample of 304 mothers of four or five year-old children, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test a 7 factor model, which included mother's beliefs and practices related to the feeding of their children. Following this, a t-test was conducted to examine the differences between the feeding behaviors of mothers of both of picky and non-oicky eaters, respectively. The results indicated that picky eater's eating behaviors were positively related to the pressures exerted by mothers and negatively related to the mother's concerns about their child's weight and child's BMI. These findings suggest that the pressures mothers exert upon their children to eat, their child's weight and picky eating behaviors are correlated to each other.