Eric A. Hodges, Ph.D.
Eric Hodges is an Assistant Professor in the Family Health Division of the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Hodges’ research interest centers on feeding responsiveness between the primary caregiver (usually the mother) and child during infancy and toddlerhood and the role feeding interactions play in the child’s developing self-regulation of eating and subsequent weight status. He has expertise in behavioral coding of parent-child interactions from infancy through toddlerhood. Currently, Dr. Hodges is PI of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar grant involving a subsample of first-time African-American mother-infant pairs followed from 3-18 months of age. This study aims to explore longitudinally whether there is a relationship between maternal feeding responsiveness from infancy through early childhood and child anthropometric status at age 4-6 years among African-American mother-child dyads. A mixed methods approach involving longitudinal growth curve modeling, mediation and moderation analyses, cluster analysis, and qualitative analysis is planned to address study aims. Dr. Hodges is also PI of a NC TraCS pilot grant which aims to describe and compare levels of agreement among research measurements of fat mass from DXA, air displacement plethysmography (ADP) , and readily available clinical measures of fat mass from skinfold measurements among 4-6 year old African-American children. He has recently been awarded a UNC Junior Faculty Development Award for a study which aims to distinguish patterns of maternal feeding responsiveness among three groups of African-American mother-infant pairs followed from 3-18 months of age groups based on three infant weight-for-length growth trajectories: 1) those starting below the 85th percentile and eventually going and staying above, 2) those starting above the 85th percentile and eventually going and staying below, and 3) those staying between the 30th and 70th percentiles at all observations.
Selected Publications:
Hodges, E. A., Smith, C. R., Tidwell, S., & Berry, D. (in revision). Promoting Physical Activity in Preschoolers to Prevent Obesity: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Pediatric Nursing.
DiSantis, K.I., Hodges, E. A., Johnson, S. L., & Fisher, J. O. (in review). The role of responsive feeding in overweight during infancy and toddlerhood: A systematic review. International Journal of Obesity.
Hodges, E. A., Kindermann, T., & Houck, G. M. (2009). Validity of the Nursing Child Assessment of Feeding Scale during toddlerhood. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 31(5), 662-678. doi: 10.1177/0193945909332265
Fisher, J. O., Butte, N. F., Wilson, T. A., Mendoza, P. M., Hodges, E. A., Deming, D. (2008). Overestimation of infant and toddler energy intake by 24-hour recall compared to weighed food records. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 88 (2), 407-415.
Hodges, E. A., Hughes, S. O., Hopkinson, J. M., & Fisher, J. O. (2008). Maternal decisions about the initiation and termination of infant feeding. Appetite, 50, 333-339.
Hodges, E. A., Kindermann, T., & Houck, G. M. (2007). Reliability of the Nursing Child Assessment of Feeding Scale during toddlerhood. Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing, 30 (3), 109-130.
Fisher, J. O. & Hodges, E. A. (2006). Determinants and consequences of pediatric obesity: Comments on Chaput and Tremblay, and Ventura, Savage, May, and Birch. In Tremblay, R. E. Barr, R. G., & Peters, R. DeV., eds. Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Development [online]. Montreal, Quebec: Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development; 2006: 1-7. Available at:
http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/documents/Fisher-HodgesANGxp.pdf
Hodges, E. A. (2003). A primer on early childhood obesity and parental
influence. Pediatric Nursing, 29(1), 13-16.
Eric A. Hodges, PhD, FNP-BC
Assistant Professor & Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar
UNC-Chapel Hill
School of Nursing
Carrington Hall
Campus Box 7460
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460
919-966-0534
919-843-9969 (fax)
eahodges@email.unc.edu