Australian parents' and children's food-related interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

PurposeDuring the COVID-19 pandemic people worldwide in the same household spent more time together and school children engaged in remote learning throughout extended lockdowns and restrictions. The present study aimed to explore parents' perceptions of their involvement and enjoyment in food-related interactions with their children during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated lockdowns/restrictions and changes in their children's food intake, especially children's lunches during the remote learning period.Design/methodology/approachData from parents (n = 136) were collected via an online survey in 2020. Parents' responses to closed-ended questions were analysed via descriptive statistics and open-ended responses were analysed thematically.FindingsMost parents (62%) reported that they interacted more with their school-aged (5–17 years) children about food during COVID-19 compared to pre-pandemic times. These interactions included cooking, menu planning, eating, conversations around food, and gardening. Most parents (74%) prepared meals with their children during the pandemic and most of them (89%) reported that they enjoyed it. Most parents (n = 91 out of 121) perceived that their children's lunches during remote learning were different to when attending school in person and these changes included eating hot and home-cooked food and more elaborate meals.Originality/valueThis study sheds important insights into a sample of Australian parents' food-related interactions with their school-aged children during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns and parents' observations and perceptions of changes in the children's food intake during the remote learning period.

Systematic Literature Review on Parental Perspectives of the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Food-Related Behaviors

“…General trends in meal planning and grocery shopping behaviors during the pandemic were adoption of meal planning skills (Menon et al 2022;Radwan, Radwan, and Radwan 2021;Spyreli et al 2021), shopping less often (Ferrante et al 2021;Spyreli et al 2021), observing prices going up (Spyreli et al 2021), shortage of food items (Menon et al 2022;Sylvetsky et al 2022), need to provide a nutritious diet for health (Spyreli et al 2021;Philippe et al 2021;Philippe, Issanchou, and Monnery-Patris 2022), and shift towards home food deliveries (Ferrante et al 2021;Menon et al 2022;Spyreli et al 2021). Four studies did not report on this aspect of food-related parental perspectives (Benson et al 2022;Nanayakkara et al 2022;Jansen et al 2021;Adams et al 2020).…”

“…Food planning improved (Menon et al 2022) in terms of providing an all-inclusive balanced diet to keep family members strong and healthy (Spyreli et al 2021); positive food attitudes in the more prudent use of food with less wastage were also observed (Dou et al 2021). Parents more frequently bought foods their child liked (Philippe et al 2021), sought their children's opinions about what they would like to eat for the meals (Radwan, Radwan, and Radwan 2021), or got their children involved in menu planning (Radwan, Radwan, and Radwan 2021;Nanayakkara et al 2022). Parents also bought more healthy and sustainable foods (Philippe et al 2021), as the lockdown gave them the opportunity to pay more attention to the nutritional value of foods and meals, and stimulated them to provide a diversity of foods and balanced meals (Philippe, Issanchou, and Monnery-Patris 2022).…”

“…Moreover, parents made healthier choices as a result of not being "on the go" (Sylvetsky et al 2022), including making more meals from scratch (Carroll et al 2020) and experimenting in the kitchen (Menon et al 2022; Philippe, Issanchou, and Monnery-Patris 2022). Cooking with the child was a pleasurable activity (Nanayakkara et al 2022;Philippe, Issanchou, and Monnery-Patris 2022) and the occasion to educate about food, to pass on certain cooking skills and values around food, and to taste new flavors (Philippe, Issanchou, and Monnery-Patris 2022); additionally, as part of meal preparation routine, parents also involved their children in gardening together (Nanayakkara et al 2022;Radwan, Radwan, and Radwan 2021). One study reported that cooking skills confidence was associated with a higher frequency of including children in cooking activities, and that a higher intake of vegetables by parents was predictive of more frequent including of children in cooking activities (Benson et al 2022).…”

“…The impacts of COVID-19 on feeding behaviors in parents and subsequent eating behaviors in their children have been varied. Many positive changes in feeding and eating practices were observed during the lockdown, including increased consumption of hot and home-cooked lunches (Nanayakkara et al 2022;Radwan, Radwan, and Radwan 2021), and greater concern for health and immunity starting to impact food choices (Menon et al 2022); consequently, lunch quality also improved, including increased variety, more elaborate and complex meals, and healthier meals (Nanayakkara et al 2022;Radwan, Radwan, and Radwan 2021). Moreover, eating at a calm pace had positive consequences for the meal atmosphere at home and on children's eating behaviors (Philippe, Issanchou, and Monnery-Patris 2022), and being home together made some parents more aware of their children's SD consumption and/or help them to control it (Sylvetsky et al 2022).…”

“…Most parents observed an increase in the overall food intake of their children during the remote learning period (Nanayakkara et al 2022), who also ate more home-cooked and hot meals (Nanayakkara et al 2022;Radwan, Radwan, and Radwan 2021); additionally, as a result of cooking more meals at home, food quality also improved (Radwan, Radwan, and Radwan 2021), as meals became more varied and health (Philippe et al 2021;Radwan, Radwan, and Radwan 2021). On the other hand, increased amount of food in the household had negative impacts on food consumption patterns in children, such as overeating or increased eating frequency and snacking (Dou et al 2021;Menon et al 2022), which led some parents to express concerns about their children weight (Farello et al 2022;Philippe, Issanchou, and Monnery-Patris 2022).…”