The Family as an Actor in High School Students’ Eating Habits: A Qualitative Research Study

Abstract

In order to discover family conceptions and their difficulties with regard to healthy eating habits during the school day, a qualitative study framed in the phenomenological, exploratory, and explanatory perspective has been carried out to detect and describe the aspects and interrelationships that shape the study phenomenon. The researchers performed triangulation techniques and information analysis support with the Atlas-ti programme. As participants, the students’ parents belonging to public secondary education high schools in Huelva, and the capital and its province were included. The participants were intentionally chosen based on established selection and segmentation criteria. Four main categories were obtained from the triangulated analysis. Healthy breakfast, school snack, school cafeteria, and promotion of healthy food measures. Other subcategories were established within them. Families are well aware of the composition of a healthy breakfast, although this is often not translated into practice. Lack of time, comfort and market influence are the main challenges they encounter for their children to acquire healthy habits. The maintenance of healthy habits, their responsibility and control on behalf of the family, and promoting fruit consumption and healthy products from the part of the centre and its cafeteria were highlighted as improvement proposals.

Promotion of Healthy Eating in Spanish High Schools

“…The participation of the family in the educational field, in this or any other, is indisputable today [ 48 ], as well as the need for coordination with other community institutions or agents to achieve effectiveness in educational interventions [ 49 , 50 ]. However, in the studied context, we found lack of participation of members of the community such as the parents of students in actions to promote healthy eating, except in one-time activities of commemorative or festive nature.…”

Parents’ Modeling During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Influences on Family Members’ Diet Quality and Satisfaction With-Food-Related Life in Dual-Earner Parents With Adolescent Children

“…Parents thus become a point of reference on eating behaviors and can influence children’s long-term food choices and eating habits ( 19 ). The literature has reported positive relationships between parents’ modeling of healthy food choices and diet outcomes in adolescents ( 5 , 9 , 10 , 20 – 24 ). These studies, however, have focused on samples from developed countries ( 23 , 25 , 26 ), and on mother-child dyads ( 17 , 23 , 25 – 29 ).…”

“…To the best of the authors’ knowledge, SWFoL has not been explored in its relationships with parental modeling and diet quality at a family level. This exploration becomes relevant, particularly in dual-earner parents, because high job demands have been associated with lower diet quality, not only for the worker but also for their families, given that personal resources such as time and energy are invested in workplace responsibilities instead of on food-related tasks [e.g., ( 20 , 45 , 46 )].…”

“…Nevertheless, FPP may not only be related to children’s eating habits, but to the eating habits of other family members ( 20 ). Evidence from the United States and European countries indicate a high correlation between parents’ and adolescents’ dietary behaviors ( 33 , 34 ), while parents’ FPP are consistent not only with their adolescent children’s dietary behavior, but their own diet ( 29 ).…”

“…One last consideration for this proposal derives from the Latin American context in which this study is conducted. In this cultural context, fathers tend to engage less in FPP than mothers, because the latter are traditionally tasked with food purchase and meal preparation ( 20 , 28 , 33 , 34 , 40 ). However, other research with Latino families suggests that fathers can also improve their children’s eating behaviors by exerting FPP, buying and preparing foods, and participating in mealtimes ( 27 , 34 , 62 ).…”