Introduction: Although stress has been associated with eating behaviors, such as overeating and eating less healthy foods, the relationships between specific types of parent stressors and fast-food consumption in parents and young children have not been well studied. We hypothesized that parent perceived stress, parenting stress, and household chaos would be positively associated with fast-food consumption for parents and their young children.

Methods: Parents of 2-5 year olds and with Body Mass Index >27 kg/m² (N = 234, parent mean age: 34.3 (±5.7); child age: 44.9 (±13.8) months; 65.8 % from two parent households) completed surveys on parent perceived stress, parenting stress, household chaos, and their fast-food intake and that of their child.

Results: In separate regression models, controlling for covariates, parent perceived stress (β = 0.21, p < 0.01; R² = 0.10, p < 0.01), parenting stress (β = 0.26, p < 0.01; R² = 0.13, p < 0.01), and household chaos (β = 0.25, p < 0.01; R² = 0.12, p < 0.01) were each significantly associated with parent fast-food consumption, and separately with child fast-food consumption [Parent perceived stress (β = 0.05, p = 0.02; R² = 0.14, p < 0.01); parenting stress (β = 0.14, p = 0.03; R² = 0.14, p < 0.01); parent fast-food consumption (β = 0.40, p < 0.01; R² = 0.27, p < 0.01)]. However, combined final models showed parenting stress (p < 0.01) as the only significant predictor of parent fast-food consumption, which in turn was the only significant predictor of child fast-food consumption (p < 0.01).

Discussion: The findings support the inclusion of parenting stress interventions that target fast-food eating behaviors in parents, which may in turn, reduce fast-food intake in their young children.