Nepper Martha J, Chai Weiwen
Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583, USA.
Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583, USA.
Appetite. 2016 Aug 1;103:157-164. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2016.04.012. Epub 2016 Apr 14.
The home environment is considered one of the most important settings in regards to the development of healthy eating habits among children. The primary purpose of this study was to explore parents' barriers and strategies in promoting healthy eating in the home. The secondary objective was to determine whether the barriers and strategies parents had were different between healthy weight and overweight/obese school-age children. Semi-structured individual interviews with 14 parents of healthy weight and 11 parents of overweight/obese children (6-12 years) were conducted in family homes from August 2014 to March 2015. Transcripts were recorded and codes and themes were verified by the research team and one qualitative expert. Themes emerging from both parents of healthy weight and overweight/obese children were: 1) Parents are busy and strapped for time; 2) Cost is a barrier in providing healthy food, but parents are resourceful; 3) Children ask for junk food regularly, but parents have strategies to manage; 4) Picky eaters are a challenge but parents know they have to overcome this barrier; and 5) Early exposure to unhealthy eating influences children's food choices but strategies can help. However, parents of overweight/obese children felt a lack of support from their spouses/partners for healthy eating in the home, which was not expressed among parents of healthy weight children. Additionally, barriers and strategies were similar among parents of children from different age groups [6-9 years vs. 10-12 years (pre-adolescents)]. Our results suggest while parents faced some challenges in promoting healthy eating in the home, they utilized several strategies to overcome these barriers, which are valuable for direct intervention to improve home food environment and manage children's weight.
家庭环境被认为是儿童养成健康饮食习惯的最重要场所之一。本研究的主要目的是探讨家长在家庭中促进健康饮食方面的障碍和策略。次要目标是确定健康体重和超重/肥胖学龄儿童的家长在障碍和策略方面是否存在差异。2014年8月至2015年3月期间，在家庭住所对14名健康体重儿童的家长和11名超重/肥胖儿童（6至12岁）的家长进行了半结构化的个人访谈。研究团队和一名定性专家对访谈记录进行了整理，并对编码和主题进行了验证。健康体重儿童的家长和超重/肥胖儿童的家长都提到的主题有：1）家长忙碌且时间紧张；2）成本是提供健康食品的障碍，但家长会想办法；3）孩子经常要垃圾食品，但家长有应对策略；4）挑食是个挑战，但家长知道必须克服这一障碍；5）过早接触不健康饮食会影响孩子的食物选择，但策略可以起到帮助作用。然而，超重/肥胖儿童的家长感到配偶/伴侣在家庭健康饮食方面缺乏支持，而健康体重儿童的家长没有这样表达。此外，不同年龄组[6至9岁与10至12岁（青春期前）]儿童的家长在障碍和策略方面相似。我们的研究结果表明，虽然家长在家庭中促进健康饮食方面面临一些挑战，但他们采用了多种策略来克服这些障碍，这些策略对于直接干预以改善家庭食物环境和控制孩子体重具有重要价值。
