Dishing on dinner: a life course approach to understanding the family meal context among families with preschoolers

Abstract

Objective: Family meals promote healthful dietary intake and well-being among children. Despite these benefits, family meal participation typically declines as children age. This study utilises life course theory to explore parents’ perceptions of family meals in order to understand how parents’ past experiences with family meals (in childhood and earlier in adulthood) influence their current beliefs and practices regarding mealtimes with their own children. Design: Semi-structured qualitative interviews. Setting: In-person interviews were conducted in participants’ homes. Participants: Twenty families (twenty-one mothers and fifteen fathers) with a child aged between 18 months and 5 years. Results: Thematic analysis revealed that families seemed to primarily approach mealtimes from one of three overarching orientations: meals for (1) Togetherness, (2) Nutrition Messaging or (3) Necessity. These orientations were informed by parents’ own mealtime experiences and significant life transitions (e.g. parenthood). The current family meal context, including the messages parents shared with their children during mealtimes and the challenges experienced with mealtimes, characterised the orientations and families’ approaches to mealtimes. Conclusions: Parents’ own early life experiences and significant life transitions influence why families eat meals together and have important implications for the intergenerational transmission of mealtime practices. Results may help to inform the content and timing of intervention strategies to support the continuation of frequent family meals beyond the preschool years.

The Lived Experiences of Fathers in Mealtimes: A Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Literature

“…Sixteen studies conducted across North America [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ], Europe [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ] and Australia [ 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ] were included in this metasynthesis. Sample sizes ranged from 8 participants [ 40 ] to 149 participants [ 47 ], with studies exploring the perspectives of fathers, mothers and families.…”

“…Meal-related tasks (particularly meal preparation) were shared between couples in an attempt to reduce the burden of domestic duties on the primary caregiver [ 40 , 42 , 46 , 51 , 53 , 55 , 57 ]. Some fathers also recognised that in adopting a shared feeding approach with their partner, they were able to collectively identify and use strategies to respond to the challenges posed by food fussiness [ 46 , 48 , 53 , 54 , 57 ].…”

“…Negative perceptions of this involvement prompted fathers to redefine the mealtime experience. Fathers chose to become more involved in family mealtimes by adopting new roles within the kitchen [ 46 , 52 ] and taking interest in their children’s feeding behaviours [ 48 , 52 ].…”

Food and Nutrition Education integrated in a holistic educational model

“…During snack time, children and educators sit at the table, which is a positive attitude towards food [62,63]. For instance, a study by Wansink and Kleef [64] showed lower Body Mass Indexes (BMI) among parents and children of families who had dinner daily sitting at the table in relation to families who ate in other places, highlighting the act of sitting at the table as a practice of social support and family involvement being a possible strategy to fight obesity.…”

Family mealtime emotions and food parenting practices among mothers of young children: Development of the Mealtime Emotions Measure for Parents (MEM‐P)

“…Furthermore, parental food parenting practices may impact the emotional climate of mealtimes with young children (Hughes et al, 2011). It has been suggested that negative feelings about family mealtimes with preschoolers (e.g., being viewed as 'fraught') may be related to parents wanting to control their child's food intake during that time (Walton et al, 2021(Walton et al, , p. 1343). However, importantly, it is maternal-and not child-emotions that appear to determine the mealtime emotional climate, and which are also linked with food involvement parenting practices and the child's consumption of healthy foods (Saltzman et al, 2018).…”