Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
Centre for Women's and Children's Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2024 Feb 26;21(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s12966-024-01575-w.
The first 2000 days of life are a crucial and opportunistic time to promote positive dietary and physical activity behaviours that can continue throughout life. The bulk of research on the impact of parents promoting positive dietary and physical activity behaviours has been on mothers, with the impact of fathers rarely investigated. The aim of this study is to investigate fathers' perceived role, self-efficacy and support needs in promoting positive dietary and physical activity behaviours in early childhood.
A sequential explanatory mixed methods study design consisted of a cross sectional survey of Australian fathers (n = 200) from a convenience sample, followed by semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 21) with a purposeful sample of Australian fathers.
Quantitative survey data revealed that more than 90.0% of fathers agreed that it is important to role model healthy eating and participating in physical activity with their babies, toddlers and children. A majority of fathers were confident in getting their child to eat fruit/ vegetables (90%) and playing with their child (80%). When searching for information about nutrition and physical activity, the highest proportion of fathers nominated online sources (52%) as their preferred source in survey data. Qualitative interview data revealed that while fathers exhibited high self-efficacy in their abilities, this was susceptible to deterioration due to feelings of isolation, pressures of fatherhood, a lack of information and resources that are father specific, and difficulties navigating the different types of information/resources to find what is right for them.
Although possessing self-efficacy, being committed and seeking knowledge, many fathers found that useful information was hard to find and understand. Appropriate resources are therefore required to support the specific needs of fathers to promote positive dietary and physical activity behaviours in their infants and young children.
生命的头 2000 天是促进积极的饮食和身体活动行为的关键和机会时期，这些行为可以持续一生。大多数关于父母促进积极的饮食和身体活动行为的研究都集中在母亲身上，很少研究父亲的影响。本研究旨在调查父亲在促进幼儿积极的饮食和身体活动行为方面的感知角色、自我效能感和支持需求。
采用横断面调查和半结构式访谈的顺序解释性混合方法设计，对来自便利样本的 200 名澳大利亚父亲进行了横断面调查，随后对来自澳大利亚父亲的目的抽样进行了半结构式访谈（n=21）。
定量调查数据显示，超过 90.0%的父亲认为，用健康的饮食和与婴儿、幼儿和儿童一起参与体育活动来树立榜样是很重要的。大多数父亲对让孩子吃水果/蔬菜（90%）和与孩子玩耍（80%）充满信心。在搜索有关营养和身体活动的信息时，父亲在调查数据中提名在线来源（52%）作为他们的首选来源。定性访谈数据显示，虽然父亲在自己的能力方面表现出自信心，但由于孤立感、父亲身份的压力、缺乏针对父亲的信息和资源，以及在不同类型的信息/资源中导航以找到适合自己的信息时遇到的困难，这种信心可能会减弱。
尽管拥有自我效能感、承诺和寻求知识，但许多父亲发现有用的信息很难找到和理解。因此，需要适当的资源来满足父亲的特定需求，以促进他们的婴儿和幼儿的积极饮食和身体活动行为。
