Eating dinner away from home: Perspectives of middle-to high-income parents

Abstract

This study sought to understand barriers and facilitators for preparing and eating dinner at home in families who report eating dinner away from home ≥3 per week. Cross-sectional, mixed methods (focus groups, questionnaires) study. Twenty-seven parents with a child 3–10 years-old who reported eating dinner away from home ≥3 times per week from a pediatric medical center in the Midwest participated. The key concepts analytic framework guided focus group analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize parent demographics, anthropometrics, attitudes and confidence toward cooking, perceptions of dinner costs and portions, and parent and child dinners. Parents reported confidence in cooking a home prepared meal, but that eating away from home was reinforcing because it provided quality family time and diminished barriers such as picky eating and perceived costs. Home cooking was also hindered by early school lunch and after-school sports as children were not hungry or home at the typical dinner hour and parents did not want to cook after 8pm. Parents estimated preparing and eating a meal at home took significantly more time than driving and eating out (80.7 minutes vs. 30.3 minutes, p<0.001). Parents significantly (F (3, 104) = 8.80, p<0.001) overestimated the cost of home-prepared meals compared to take-out and frozen meals. Portion size was also overestimated for a protein serving. Findings are limited to predominantly married, female parents whom are highly educated and working. To reduce eating out, interventions should address family factors (e.g., time management, quality time) and child behavior (e.g., picky eating). Innovative interventions that include experiential cooking opportunities that incorporate time management, address picky eating and enthusiasm for cooking with education on decreasing costs may be particularly beneficial for middle- to high-income families.

Assessing parental traits affecting children’s food habits: an analysis of the determinants of responsible consumption

“…Rather, a diet low in fruit and vegetables intake, observed in children with employed parents, may be due to the higher disposable income of family. Indeed, previous studies showed that higher household income is positively associated with both a higher consumption of meals outside home and convenience foods (Robson et al 2016), food habits often related to a poor diet quality and a greater energy intake (Nago et al 2014;Powell and Nguyen 2013). As for the unhealthy habits exhibited by children of highly educated parents, it may be correlated to highly demanding parental jobs which may leave less time to meals preparation as well as less control over what children eat at home.…”

Consumption of key food groups during the postpartum period in low-income, non-Hispanic black mothers

“…Despite shifting domestic roles, mothers remain principal family food providers. Time spent working could influence the number of meals cooked and consumed at home, thus placing a heavy emphasis on meals and snacks away from home or on prepackaged, ready-to-eat foods, which are often of lower nutritional quality (Robson, Crosby, & Stark, 2016). …”

Environmental factors of food literacy in Australian high schools: views of home economics teachers

“…HETs believed that home economics is the logical and most favourable place where food literacy could be taught comprehensively because it incorporates a theoretical and most importantly practical component which allows adolescents to develop food skills which aligns with findings of other studies (Slater, 2013;Benn, 2014;Colatruglio and Slater, 2014). It is important more than ever to build adolescents' food skills as many are experiencing reduced exposure to food skills within the home environment associated with increased consumption of convenience foods and parents having low levels of food literacy (Robson et al, 2016). HETs observed that many adolescents undertaking home economics classes have little knowledge of food, food preparation and food-related hygiene practices.…”