School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC 3125, Australia.
Nutrients. 2018 Mar 19;10(3):374. doi: 10.3390/nu10030374.
The prevalence of obesity among Australian pre-school children is a major concern with links to poor health outcomes. One contributing factor is excess energy intake. Sugar-sweetened beverages are energy-dense, nutrient-poor, readily available and have been implicated in the increasing prevalence of obesity. Furthermore, preschooler beverage consumption may develop into dietary habits that track into adulthood. There is little research on factors influencing parents' decision-making when serving beverages to their preschoolers, or on mothers' perceptions of preschooler's beverages. The aim of this study was to explore mothers' perceptions of commonly consumed preschooler beverages.
The Repertory Grid Technique and the Laddering Technique methodologies were utilized in interviews with 28 mothers from Melbourne, Australia, to explore beverage perceptions.
A large number of diverse perceptual categories ('constructs') ( = 22) about beverages were elicited, demonstrating the complexity of mothers' perceptions when making beverage choices for their preschoolers. The five most common categories were related to health, sugar, dairy, packaging, and additives. Thematic analysis of responses from the laddering method identified three major themes: concerns about the types of beverages mothers would like to provide their preschoolers, the healthiness of a beverage, and the sugar content.
Mothers' perceptions of beverages are sophisticated and need to be included in the design of health communication strategies by health promoters and government agencies to influence mothers' beverage selections for their preschoolers.
澳大利亚学龄前儿童肥胖的流行是一个主要问题，与健康状况不佳有关。一个促成因素是能量摄入过多。含糖饮料能量密集、营养贫乏、易于获得，并与肥胖症的日益流行有关。此外，学龄前儿童的饮料消费可能会发展成成年后会持续的饮食习惯。很少有研究关注影响父母为学龄前儿童提供饮料时决策的因素，也很少有研究关注母亲对学龄前儿童饮料的看法。本研究旨在探讨母亲对学龄前儿童常见饮料的看法。
采用 repertory grid technique 和 laddering technique 方法对来自澳大利亚墨尔本的 28 位母亲进行访谈，以探讨对饮料的看法。
研究共得出了 22 个关于饮料的不同感知类别（“构念”），表明母亲在为学龄前儿童选择饮料时的感知非常复杂。最常见的五个类别与健康、糖、乳制品、包装和添加剂有关。通过阶梯法分析得到了三个主要主题：母亲希望为孩子提供的饮料种类、饮料的健康程度以及糖含量。
母亲对饮料的看法非常复杂，需要健康促进者和政府机构在制定健康传播策略时考虑到这一点，以影响母亲为孩子选择饮料。
