Balancing health,harmony and hegemony: Parents' goals and strategies in children's food related consumer socialization

Parents play a pivotal role in socializing their children for healthy eating. The objectives of the present study were (1) to identify food socialization outcomes valued by parents, and (2) to study how parents socialize their children for (healthy) eating at home and during food shopping. Including both parents' perceptions of valued food socialization outcomes and associated processes addresses a significant gap in the food socialization literature. The study used semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews with parents of young children. Data were subsequently analysed by interpretive, thematic procedures. The sample consisted of middle‐ to high‐income families from two cities in Denmark. Findings reveal four main food socialization goals valued by parents: (1) Nutrition and Health, (2) Healthy Relationship with Food, (3) Food Assimilation and (4) Self‐Regulation and Autonomy. Parents prioritized children's acquisition of a healthy relationship with food which included preserving family relations and harmony, more than strictly attending a nutritious diet, contrasting the focus on the nutritional value of diet usually emphasised by public health authorities. The study therefore concludes that parents' notions of what constitutes healthy diets for their children is not completely aligned with common nutrition‐oriented recommendations. Also, fathers were found to play a very active role in their children's food‐related consumer socialization. The findings underline the importance of addressing the priorities and strategies of both mothers and fathers when marketers and policy makers target contemporary families regarding children's food socialization.     

Development of TV advertising literacy in children

This study investigates the role of physical appearance (body mass index (BMI), body shapeperception, self-esteem) and variables related to eating habits (food choice, critical attitude towards food, parents’ attitude towards food) in the development of advertising literacy in children focusing on food advertising. Based on the concept of self-esteem and the theory of cognitive dissonance, a research model is developed and tested in an empirical study with 249children aged 7 to 11. Using PLS path modelling, self-esteem and critical attitude towards food are identified as factors influencing advertising literacy directly. Self-esteem is significantly influenced by children’s BMI and body shape perception, while critical attitude is determined by children’s food choices and children’s perception of their parents’ attitude towards food. Evidence was found that the influence of body shape perception on advertising literacy is fully mediated by self-esteem. The results link variables related to physical appearance and eating habits to how children deal with advertising. Implications for academic research and public policy are discussed, and the study raises issues for children’s advertising literacy support and training.     

Consuming Love in Poor Families: Children's Influence on Consumption Decisions

This paper explores consumption practices in poor families focusing on children's influence on consumption decisions. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 such families, the study demonstrates that children exert considerable direct and indirect influence on family consumption decisions and practices. Consumption in poor families often revolves around children and parents make considerable sacrifices to ensure their children are not stigmatised by the visibility of poverty. Indeed, some parents place their own needs and desires on hold until their children are older. The findings are discussed with reference to love influence in family consumer research.     

Coping with Time Pressure and Stress: Consequences for Families’ Food Consumption

This study explores the coping strategies that families apply when under time pressure and stress (time stress), and how such strategies affect food consumption at dinnertime. The data were based on photo interviewing methodology with a sample of 12 Norwegian children (ages seven and eight) and their parents. In this case, the children were asked to take photographs during their dinners at home and while shopping for groceries with their parents. The findings show that the most dominant explanation for time stress was the children’s participation in sport activities. In this regard, the families applied several coping strategies, such as skipping dinner and eating snacks instead, consuming convenience food, avoiding preference conflicts, planning for healthy dinners, involving children and grandparents in food preparation, and practising compensatory health beliefs and behaviours. This might be the first study that identifies parents’ use of compensatory health beliefs to justify children’s diets. More specifically, the parents stated that the children’s high activity levels could compensate for unhealthy food consumption. The strategies that were applied had varying influences on the families’ food consumption, depending on the parents’ confidence in cooking and meal-planning skills. It was found that parents with high confidence and skills were more likely to make healthy cooking a priority. Consequently, they served more healthy dishes at dinnertime, compared with other parents. Unlike previous studies, the findings indicate that children’s active lifestyles might not be directly related to healthy diets.     

Using photo interviews to explore children's food preferences

This methodological paper elaborates on the pitfalls and potentials for using participatory photo interviews that explore children's experiences with food. It aims to show how participatory photo interviews can give a deeper understanding of children's food preferences. Such knowledge will be useful to other researchers who wish to apply the method in social studies involving children and food. We studied 12 families comprising seven‐ and eight‐year‐old children and their parents to illustrate how this method can be used to identify and understand children's food preferences. The children took photographs over a one‐week period while eating family dinners at home and grocery shopping with their parents. The photos were then used to elicit information during separate in‐depth interviews. Qualitative data analysis software (NVivo 10) was used to content analyse the data. We found that participant photo interviews were a useful method for helping children to remember and describe the sensory, cognitive and affective situational associations of their meals. This approach helped to explore interesting aspects of children's preferences such as their response to raw vegetables, the importance of controlling and choosing meal ingredients and ambivalent food preferences. We discuss parental involvement during data collection as it represents one of the methodological pitfalls. Another limitation is the risk of sensitive information to be breached. We conclude that participatory photo interviews have potential for future food research involving children and may provide information difficult to elicit using other methods.     

Hong Kong parents' perceptions of the transference of food preparation skills

Food preparation skills among young adults are associated with healthy food choices, better diets and a greater likelihood of an independent, healthy adult life. This study conducted in Hong Kong aimed to investigate parents' perceptions of cooking skills; to explore the transference of cooking skills in the home setting; to identify parents' expectations regarding the transference of cooking skills; and to inform the development of educational initiatives for developing healthy eating habits. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect information of the subjects' cooking experience, attitudes about cooking skills, cooking habits at home, family meal habits, transference of cooking culture in the family and the factors influencing the choice of ingredients and cooking. It was administered to 1009 Hong Kong parents (of students aged between 11 and 18, studying in 15 secondary schools). The collected data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 12.0, SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and cross‐tabulation analyses were used to compare the responses of the parents by gender, employment status and income. The results show that parents valued cooking as important life skills for both boys and girls. Parents generally perceived their cooking skills either good (41.9%) or mediocre (54.5%), yet children are rarely taught these skills in the home. Family meals prepared primarily with fresh ingredients are still an important part of the daily routine, and mothers are dominating the roles in food choice decision, cooking and buying the ingredients for family meals. Mothers and schools are expected to be the major channel to teach children cooking skills. Findings suggest that parents are well‐disposed towards providing food and nutrition education at home, but need more support (50% reported that home should be a primary support for learning cooking skills; 36% indicated that the school should have a responsibility to teach children to cook starting in elementary school). Schools may do well to collaborate with families in food literacy education initiatives. Developing individuals' cooking skills paves the way for long‐term health benefits and the well‐being of the local population.     

Parental perception of lunch schemes in Danish kindergartens: A cross-sectional survey

Children’s daily consumption of food in childcare institutions has an impact on their public health nutritional status. The collaboration of parents and employees of kindergartens is important to ensure healthy eating habits among the next generation. Consequently, evaluations of lunch schemes are important to provide a good foundation for enhancing communication between home and institutional settings. The aim of this article is to assess parental satisfaction and identify themes related to parental perceptions of lunch schemes in Danish kindergartens. A survey was developed and distributed in four kindergartens with lunch schemes. A combination of closed and open questions were used to evaluate satisfaction and identify positive and negative aspects of the lunch schemes. Parents of 93 children participated in the study and the response rate was 55%. Eighty-nine percent expressed satisfaction with their children’s lunch scheme. According to parents, the most positive aspects were that lunch schemes serve a variety of food, their ability to prevent neophobia, that children learn that eating is a social occasion, and that the arrangements offer convenience to parents. The negative aspects identified were the lack of communication between the kindergarten childcare institutions and the parents regarding the food. Overall, parents are very satisfied with their children’s lunch schemes; however, the information between institutions and parents could be improved.     

Children's perception of food and healthy eating: dynamics behind their food preferences

Childhood obesity epidemic has been a popular topic for research as it has become a major health concern in many countries. As the focus of earlier studies has been predominantly on food marketing to children, there is still limited research on what other factors, apart from food marketing, influence their food preferences and eating habits. Bringing in children's perspectives as well as those of parents and guardians, this study aims to fill this gap by shedding light on further dynamics that can be influential on children's preferences. Through a qualitative inquiry, focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with children between the ages of 7 and 11. Aiming to investigate both meanings and practices, these sessions also included interactive and participatory research methods such as drawing, word games and role playing. Moreover, in-depth interviews were carried out with teachers and mothers to gain an understanding of their perspective on the topic. The findings show the different appeals and social influences behind children's food preferences, among which sensory and fun appeals as well as the influence of parents come forward. By revealing these different appeals of food and social influences, the study brings a new perspective to the discussions on childhood obesity and food marketing.     

The impact of lifestyles and food knowledge on the food patterns of German children

The German youth is relatively well informed about healthy eating, but does not act in accordance with this knowledge. It is also known from empirical studies that there is an association between lifestyles, food knowledge and the eating patterns of older teenagers. However, is there a similar correlation in regard to younger children? This article shows results of a study addressing this issue by empirically investigating leisure time activities, food intake and food knowledge. The study conducted with 907 children, on average 12 years old, out of an urban region in northwest Germany using a written questionnaire, implies that food patterns and food knowledge have to be improved because they are – on average – only marginally acceptable. On this level, they are not in line with a healthy future. For the first time in Germany, food patterns and food knowledge of seventh grade pupils were analysed in relation to their lifestyles. The study revealed four lifestyles. One family‐oriented lifestyle and three non‐family oriented lifestyles: outdoor and sociable youth, culture‐oriented youth, and multimedia kids. The family‐oriented lifestyle influences the children's food patterns in a positive way; the three found non‐family‐oriented lifestyles lead to less preferable food patterns. The results imply that there is a phase of unhealthy food patterns at the beginning of the second life decade, which seems to be linked to the detachment from the parents and the gained independency, expressed by the first self‐chosen lifestyles. As lifestyles have such a vital influence on healthy eating, and family is no longer the place where children get their everyday competencies, school has to enable pupils to make healthier food and lifestyle choices.     

Poisonings

Manufacturers of household products – including appliances, exercise equipment, and even some children's toys – expect consumers to supervise their children to prevent product related injuries. This approach to hazard prevention places the burden of safety on parents and caretakers. This study examined actual supervision practices of parents of children between the ages of two and six years. 59 parents, aged 31 to 40 years, residing in Montgomery County, Maryland, completed a 24-item self-administered questionnaire, consisting of multiple choice and open-ended questions. Nearly all respondents reported that there are times when their children are in a different room from them. When the children are out of sight, parents reported checking on their children periodically, with increasingly longer periods between observations, as the child gets older. Nearly half of the children got out of bed in the morning always or often before a parent. Ninety-five percent of parents perceived that their child was at no risk or slight risk of injury when getting up in the morning before them. In conclusion, it can be said that many parents supervise their children by being close-by and on-hand as needed, rather than being directly involved in the child's activities. Manufacturers are encouraged to employ passive measures and sound designs, rather than rely on close parental supervision for injury prevention.     

Food choice,nutrition education and parental influence on British and Korean primary school children

The nutritional status of children can influence their health and the risk factors for developing chronic diseases later in life. Korea is unique in that it is relatively westernized and yet maintains much of the traditional foods and cooking methods. Effective nutrition education should help children to choose a healthy diet through the establishment of positive dietary practices and habits. The main purpose of this research is to compare awareness towards nutrition education between primary schools in the UK and Korea and nutritional knowledge that children and parents have in these countries. Dietary and healthy eating knowledge data were collected by a questionnaire as part of a case study comparison using one primary school in Manchester, UK, and one in Seoul, Korea. A total of 171 primary school children and 124 parents of the children were recruited. The results indicated that children and parents appeared to be aware of the importance of limiting fat, sodium and sugar intakes, and requiring non‐starch polysaccharide (NSP). However, in the case of some foods they did not have satisfactory nutritional knowledge of which foods were high in fat, salt, sugar and NSP. British children had a better understanding of the health implication of fat than Korean children, whereas more Korean children considered excessive salt intake harmful than British children. There seemed to be differences in dietary pattern and familiarity with food between the two countries. Children identified parents as the main source of nutritional information. Therefore, parents as well as children need to learn about nutrition in order to give appropriate information or advice to improve the diets of their children. Children preferred exciting, fun, positive and a practical approach to learning about nutrition, such as computer packages and cookery classes. Parents wanted schools to give their children more information about nutrition. This research has shown that nutrition education in schools should be concerned not only to provide nutritional knowledge but also to encourage children to choose healthy food by redesigning nutrition education and school meals.     

An experimental investigation of the effect of TV cooking show consumption on children's food choice behaviour

For several decades, television consumption has been crucial in the complex web of factors underlying the obesity epidemic. It has been suggested that if television cooking shows would endorse healthy eating styles, they may have positive effects on consumers’ eating habits. This study empirically investigated the consequences of exposing children (N = 85, aged 9–12 years) to an existing television cooking show episode endorsing the consumption of fruits and vegetables compared with exposure to a non‐food‐related science show. The measures included pre‐test and post‐test attitudes toward health/nutrition and fruits/vegetables, as well as state preferences for a list of healthy and unhealthy foods. At the end of the study, children were separately given the choice between a popular cookie and a piece of fruit as a reward; this was used as a behavioural measure. The results of a logistic regression on the behavioural choice measure showed that the mere exposure to one episode of the television cooking show significantly increased the odds that the children would choose a piece of fruit over a cookie. Repeated‐measures analyses showed that watching this single episode also decreased children's state appetite for unhealthy foods. State appetites for healthy foods and attitudes toward health/nutrition or fruits/vegetables did not change after watching the television cooking show episode. In sum, existing television cooking shows that endorse healthy eating positively influence children's food consumption in the short term and may have the potential to be used as platforms for nutrition education.     

Secondary school tuck shop options and student choices: A cross‐sectional survey

Obesity in children is rapidly becoming a major public health problem in Hong Kong; the prevalence of overweight in children increased from 16.2% to 22.2% between 1998 and 2008. Healthy eating programs and policies exist, but only for primary schools, and students’ eating habits change when they are exposed to the new environment in secondary schools. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between available food in secondary school tuck shops and students’ purchasing preferences. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted from mid‐March to mid‐April 2016 across six secondary schools, using a questionnaire to measure students’ healthy eating knowledge and eating habits and a checklist to explore food options in each school's tuck shop. Linear regression was used to explore the relationship between eating knowledge and eating habits and logistic regression to explore the relationship between available foods at the tuck shops and the children's purchasing preferences. A total of 374 junior secondary students participated in the survey. A weak, positive correlation was found between healthy eating knowledge and healthy eating habits. No association was found between available food at tuck shops and children's purchasing preferences. The results reveal a definite knowledge‐attitude gap where healthy eating is concerned. Despite there being no significant association between the food offerings in tuck shops and students’ measured purchasing preferences (p > .05), 81% of the students stated that they would choose healthy food if offered, illustrating the urgent need to assess the variety and nutritional quality of foods available in secondary school tuck shops.     

Family communication and parental influence on children's brand attitudes

This study examines the degree family communication affects the transmission of brand attitudes from parents to children. The results indicate that mothers with concept-oriented and fathers with socio-oriented communication are more likely to influence their children's brand attitudes. The article considers the effects of gender. Comparing with those of fathers', mothers' brand attitudes relate more to both male and female children's brand attitudes.     

Children's influences on in-store purchases

Relatively little is known about the influence children have on their parents’ purchases in a retail setting. This study investigates which factors affect children's purchase requests and their parents’ subsequent purchases. It was found that factors influencing the number of children's purchase requests were the freedom of a child's movements, the product's visibility, and the child's developmental stage. The latter variable together with the suitability of the good for consumption on the premises, the linguistic form of child's request, the parent's household income, and the price of the good determine the number of purchases following a child's request.     

Are parents gender neutral when financing their children's consumption?

Children are consumers from early on, but they are dependent on financial support from their parents for many years. Based on a survey among 1173 Norwegian children aged 8–24 years, we examine how children's consumption is financed and how their main financial sources change during childhood, distinguishing between pocket money and odd jobs on the one hand and gainful employment and study loans on the other. Our analysis demonstrates how parental monetary support decreases as years go by and is replaced by gainful employment and study loans. We ask whether parents are gender neutral in supporting their children's consumption or not. This is done by comparing the distribution of pocket money among girls and boys, as well as the amount of money given to the respective genders for special consumer goods. Girls and boys have divergent preferences and often exhibit different spending patterns. The analysis of the six selected fields of consumption showed significant gender differences in four of them. By comparing what children choose to pay for with their own money with what they influence their parents to pay for, we find that parents' financial support tend to have a moderating effect on their children's own gender‐biased preferences.     

Self‐reporting vs. observation: some cautionary examples from parent/child food shopping behaviour

Most studies on decision‐making in relation to consumption are based on self‐reported behaviour. This approach assumes that consumers can account for their decision‐making processes. However, several studies show that consumers are not always aware of what happens when they purchase goods because of the role of habit and routines, or a lack of willingness to account accurately for their purchases. A clear example of this is family decision‐making about food shopping. It is well documented that parents know that their children influence what they buy in supermarkets but it is also found that parents and children do not agree on just how much influence children have. Thus, a gap exists in the knowledge about what is actually happening in this grey zone of grocery shopping which seemingly cannot be solved through retrospective data collection. Family shopping is neither a completely rational nor conscious process, which makes the use of self‐reported behaviour problematic. This study discusses the limits of survey and interview approaches to parents' and children's shopping decisions in comparison with observations. An observational study of parent/child supermarket shopping in Denmark is used to exemplify the strengths of observation. Findings show that both parents and children are juggling a number of roles and apply a range of negotiation strategies which can explain why it is hard to account for who decided what afterwards. The article concludes that mapping certain types of consumer actions calls for other methods than self‐reported behaviour.     

The attitudes and nutritional knowledge of 11–12 years olds in Merseyside and Northern Ireland

School is a major area for providing young people with nutritional knowledge and skills. In Northern Ireland home economics is taught to 11–12 years olds (CCEA,1998). The 1988 Education Reform Act introduced the national curriculum and home economics as a subject was effectively abolished in English schools. Key stage 3 pupils in England are taught nutrition in Science, Design and Technology and in the cross curricular theme of health education (SCAA, 1996). The aim of the study was to compare the attitudes and nutritional knowledge of children in Merseyside, England (M) and Northern Ireland (NI). A questionnaire was designed, which examined attitudes to aspects of healthy eating and tested the subject's knowledge, practical and theoretical, on nutrition and healthy eating. Subjects aged 11–12 years were recruited (M:541, NI:128). The results indicate that the healthy food message seems to have been better learnt by children in Merseyside but results of surveys in Merseyside into eating habits suggest that many have not put this knowledge into practice.     

Health promoting schools: integrated practices to develop critical thinking and healthy lifestyles through farming,growing and healthy eating

This paper reports on two case study examples of schools identified from Gloucestershire primary schools as showing particularly good practice in developing the concept of a Health Promoting School. The schools were selected from research projects linked to the Growing Schools programme for promoting children's understanding of food production and consumption, and the Gloucestershire Food Strategy for promoting healthy eating patterns in school children. Examples of curriculum development and associated pedagogy, school organization for democratic involvement of all its participants, and practical changes in the provision of eating choices are presented. These illustrate how integration of critical thinking and changes to the schools' provision of choices for healthy eating patterns can influence children's understanding and behaviour towards diet and health. The key factors that influenced such changes in the schools are identified as: clear leadership with vision from the head teacher, community involvement, ownership of processes of change by all participants, critical thinking as a focus for processes of learning; integrated practice to link experience and understanding, and the school acting as a model for good practice in health and environmental matters.     

The link between diet and health: an exploratory study of adolescents in Northern Ireland using foodmaps

A significant proportion of consumers in the UK continue to adopt a diet consisting largely of nutritionally unbalanced foods. The adolescent period has been identified as being formative in the development of long‐term eating habits as the individual achieves greater control over their food choice. By examining the current eating behaviour of a sample of adolescents, the aim of this study was to establish why they are not utilizing their knowledge to choose nutritionally balanced foods. A two‐stage data collecting procedure was adopted. In stage 1, respondents (n = 136) completed a questionnaire that measured demographic and social factors, knowledge, attitudes, pre‐existing behaviour with respect to food and the influence of family, peers, the media and government campaigns on their eating behaviour. In stage 2, a subsection of the respondents (n = 20) completed a foodmap, which revealed the network of relationships involved in the adolescents' decision‐making process by identifying the links among the foods consumed, the people they eat with and the places they eat in. Results emphasized the importance of the home environment and the continuing influence of parents on adolescents' eating behaviour despite the greater independence related to this stage of the life cycle. A proportion of the sample was found to have recognized the need to change their eating behaviour in order to lose weight, because of their sporting commitments or to improve their health. Recommendations from this study include the need for the various agencies involved in the promotion of balanced dietary behaviour to attend to the link among adult, family and adolescent, and the need for greater progress in enabling consumers to translate the theory of nutritional education into practice.