Influences on Food Away from Home Feeding Practices Among English and Spanish Speaking Parent–Child Dyads

Abstract

One contributor to increased caloric consumption and obesity rates is food consumed away from home. Families are increasingly consuming food away from home (FAFH), contributing to increased daily energy consumption and the obesity epidemic. The interplay between feeding styles and co-decision making between parent and child dyads when eating FAFH is not understood. The present study describes in-depth qualitative information about influential factors related to family feeding practices among low-income English and Spanish speaking families with school-aged children when eating FAFH. 20 parentchild dyads (10 English-speaking, 10 Spanish-speaking) completed key-informant interviews about factors related to family feeding practices when eating food away. Interviews were independently coded for meaning units by two coders. Themes that emerged from the interviews included: decision making when dining out, parental practices and feeding style, use of and opinions about kid's menus, and overall influences on food choices. Many parents had recommendations for healthier kid's menu options and overall, Spanish-speaking families tended to eat out fewer times a week and cooked more family meals. This research elucidated rules and policies set by parents around food away from and inside the home as well as the factors that influenced ordering at restaurants. Further studies should explore the cultural value of food in Latino cultures, and the resultant dietary behaviors. Decision-making between parent and child dyads about menu ordering at restaurants is complex. The results of this study can be considered for future research in understanding the decision-making process for English-and Spanish-speaking parent-child dyads when ordering from a restaurant menu.

Parents’ and kids’ eating away from home cognitions

“…However, parents placed less emphasis on the need for ensuring these meals were healthful because eating away from home occurred only occasionally. This finding supports previous reports that parents are more lenient about children’s away from home food choices and less concerned with the healthfulness of those meals (Kasparian et al , 2017; Pinard et al , 2015). Importantly, the current study suggests that children understand and echo parents’ feelings about eating healthfully when away from home.…”

How Does the Family Influence Adolescent Eating Habits in Terms of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices? A Global Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies

“…Table 4 summarizes the findings (refer to Supplementary Materials Table S1 for detailed findings extracted from each article). [33,44,47,55] Advice on healthy food choice [38,39,43,44,48,[55][56][57][58]61,66,70,71,77] Fostering cooking skills [38,58,77,80] Inconsistent message between parents and school [55] Child involvement Education during mealtimes and grocery shopping [38,51,55,65,66,71,80] Good communication with adolescents (e.g., open discussion, fun style) [37,39,47,54,55,66] Adolescents having minimal responsibility in diet-related tasks [39] Limited ability for food discussion in parents with poor role model [51] Family illness experience Emphasis on diet-related health risks experienced by family members with health problems [44,47,55] Health-related topics as a taboo in families with illnesses [39] Adolescent Attitudes Family health Perceived importance of diet-related health risks...…”

“…Family modeling of healthy eating habits [35,37,43,44,47,[55][56][57]59,66,68,70,77,80] Encouragement and praise [35,38,44,49,51,66,68,69,71,75,77,80] Parental concern on adolescent's health [38,56,57,66,78] Adolescent acting as a role model in the family [77,78] Family modeling of unhealthy eating habits [39,40,[46][47][48][49][50]54,59,68,69,[72][73][74]79] Lack of parental concern on adolescent dietary issues (e.g., body weight is not important for the young) [42,…”

“…Provision of healthy home meals [33][34][35][36]38,[42][43][44]48,50,[61][62][63]66,70,71,75,77,78,80] Home availability of healthy food/ unavailability of unhealthy foods [36,37,39,40,[42][43][44][45][47][48][49][50]52,[55][56][57]60,61,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70]73,74,77,79,80] Unhealthy home meals [39,…”

La relación entre la alimentación fuera del hogar y la obesidad: Un estudio sociológico del caso español

“…Además, los estudios generales sobre alimentación y obesidad insisten en analizar los aspectos sociales y culturales de la alimentación cuando se pretende afrontar el estudio del cambio alimentario y sus efectos (Ulijaszek, 2007). Sin duda, explorar los aspectos culturales de la alimentación fuera del hogar es una orientación necesaria, puesto que las elecciones alimentarias, también fuera de casa, varían según la cultura (Pinard et al, 2014). Pero no resulta sencillo determinar qué analizar cuando se busca el efecto cultural sobre la comida en lo que se ha dado en llamar contexto obesogénico (Swinburn, Egger y Raza, 1999).…”