It's good to talk: children's views on food and nutrition

Abstract

Objective: To gain an insight into children's views about food and nutrition. Design: Data were collected in focus group discussions; two focus group sessions were undertaken with each school group. Setting: A total of 11 postprimary schools in Northern Ireland and England. Subjects: In all, 106 children aged 11-12-y-old (n ¼ 52 boys, n ¼ 54 girls). Results: Focus group transcripts were analysed using qualitative research methodology. Major barriers to healthy eating were taste, appearance of food, filling power, time/effort, cost, choice/availability, risk, rebellion, and body image/weight concerns. The main difference between sexes was in terms of motivating factors for eating well; girls tended to focus primarily on their appearance whereas boys appeared to be more influenced by sport. There was some mention of balance and variety within the focus group discussions, however, in practice, the children had a tendency to categorise foods as either 'good' or 'bad', 'healthy' or 'unhealthy'. Conclusions: This study has revealed a number of barriers to, and motivations for, healthy eating, which should be taken into account when planning nutrition intervention strategies aimed at children moving into adolescence. While it may be possible to immediately attempt to address some of the barriers identified in this study, for example, in nutrition education initiatives, other barriers (such as the lack of available, attractive and affordable healthy foods in the school canteen) will prove more difficult to tackle without changes at the policy level. Overall, it appears that health promotion specialists have a major challenge ahead in order to encourage this age group to view healthy eating as an attractive and achievable behaviour. Sponsorship:

Parent and child perspectives on family out-of-home eating: a qualitative analysis

“…Smaller portions of the adult menus would be an excellent opportunity for increasing parents' trust that the meal will be enjoyed and promotes children eating the same foods as their parents in an environment where this tends not to happen (41) . Parents were strongly of the opinion that marketing greatly impacted upon children's food choice decisions, but it is interesting to note that children did not acknowledge this, as was previously shown in the home (26,28) and OH settings (42) . Parents in our study recommended using currently effective marketing techniques to promote healthier menu items in an effort to encourage children to try these, such as free toys and colourful packaging.…”

“…There has been an increased understanding of what influences children's food choice decisions at home including taste, hunger, advertising, availability of food, body image and peers (e.g. references [26][27][28][29], but little is known about the role of these factors when children eat OH. A better understanding of family OH eating will help to plan future public health strategies in this complex eating context.…”

How do women change osteoporosis-preventive behaviours in their children?

“…Children report disliking being 'preached' to about their dietary choices (McKinley et al, 2005), which in our study is reflected in the balanced approach mothers chose to take to influence their children 'I don't want to sayyif you don't drink this milk you're going to get osteo, I don't do that, I don't, you know, I don't go overboard'. Mothers' views on the barriers to improving dietary behaviours are remarkably consistent with those identified in children themselves (Neumark-Sztainer et al, 1999;O'Dea, 2003;McKinley et al, 2005).…”

“…Children report disliking being 'preached' to about their dietary choices (McKinley et al, 2005), which in our study is reflected in the balanced approach mothers chose to take to influence their children 'I don't want to sayyif you don't drink this milk you're going to get osteo, I don't do that, I don't, you know, I don't go overboard'. Mothers' views on the barriers to improving dietary behaviours are remarkably consistent with those identified in children themselves (Neumark-Sztainer et al, 1999;O'Dea, 2003;McKinley et al, 2005). In particular, children's negative perceptions about healthy foods; time pressure making it harder to access healthy foods and cost are all described by the mothers in our study as well as in the literature studying children (Neumark-Sztainer et al, 1999;O'Dea, 2003;McKinley et al, 2005), although cost is seen as less of a barrier by children than mothers.…”

“…Mothers described how they identify their children's preferences for particular calcium-rich foodstuffs and ensure that the foods they like are readily accessible. This is a solution to the barriers to consuming calcium-rich foods identified by children in previous research, such as taste, appearance and lack of availability of appropriate food choices (McKinley et al, 2005). This theme of accessibility of foods is demonstrated by the comment by one mother in our study that 'I'm the one who ybuys the groceries basically cooks the meals and it's a fairly important role in terms of the food intake they have', which refers to the influence parents have over the food choices of their children by influencing the accessibility of different foods.…”