Factors influencing the food choices of Irish children and adolescents: a qualitative investigation

Abstract

Food choices established during childhood and adolescence tend to persist into adulthood with consequences for long-term health. Yet, to date, relatively little research has examined factors that influence the food choices of children and adolescents from their perspectives. In this article, previous research is extended by examining developmental differences between children's and adolescents' perceptions of factors influencing their food choices. Focus group discussions were conducted with 29 young people from three age groups (9-10, 13-14 and 16-18 years). An inductive thematic analysis identified three key factors as influencing food choices. These factors included intra-individual factors: the link between food preferences and awareness of healthy eating; intra-familial factors: the role of the home food environment; and extra-familial factors: eating away from the home. Findings indicate that there were developmental differences between children's and adolescents' perceptions of factors influencing food choice. Among adolescents, parental control began to diminish and adolescents exercised increased autonomy over their food choices compared with children. To develop effective nutrition interventions, it is important to gather child and adolescent input regarding factors perceived as influencing their food choices.

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

“…Parents also considered that children had received nutrition knowledge in school, although this did not impact upon food choice decisions. This gap between knowledge and children's food choice decisions has been raised previously (27,28) and emphasises the mismatch between having the knowledge and putting it into practice.…”

“…As a result, any efforts to encourage children to make healthier choices should be cognisant of the fact that children make food choices based predominantly on taste (26)(27)(28)(29)47) . However, children's food choice decisions are even more complex in the OH environment given that while children have increased autonomy in the decision made, the process is bidirectional with parents.…”

“…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.…”

Caught in a ‘spiral’. Barriers to healthy eating and dietary health promotion needs from the perspective of unemployed young people and their service providers

“…A definitive version was subsequently published in Appetite, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2014.11.010. (Fitzgerald et al, 2010;Stevenson et al, 2007;Contento et al, 2007; 71 McKinley et al, 2005;Cullen et al, 2000;Neumark-Sztainer et al, 1999), this research has 72 located young people outside of (the constraints of) these 'imposed' environments and within …”

Using a mixed-methods approach to measure impact of a school-based nutrition and media education intervention study on fruit and vegetable intake of Italian children

“…These results indicate that the children had positive food environmental conditions and strong support from their parents before the start of the intervention. Several past studies indicated that the availability and accessibility of fruits and vegetables is a fundamental condition to develop healthy eating habits (19,24,26,56,(72)(73)(74)(75)(76) , but the results of that previous research also suggest that availability and accessibility is likely not enough without the improvement of psychosocial variables such as motivation (66) , self-efficacy (77)(78)(79) and perceived parental social support (80,81) .…”