Children's eating behaviours : an intergenerational study of family influences

• Main Author: Kime, Nicola
• Published: Leeds Beckett University 2007
• Subjects: 618.92
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.603329

Childhood obesity has become a major public health challenge. Work has already been done that focuses on schools and possible interventions in this area but there is apparently very little that targets the family environment and specifically looks at the family food culture within different generations. In recognition of the fact that the family environment has an important role to play in tackling the childhood obesity epidemic, this research aimed to redress the balance and examined the affect of the family on children's eating behaviours within an intergenerational context. The research process was governed by a qualitative, grounded theory approach that initially explored eating behaviours within different generations using sixteen focus group discussions. Following this, twenty seven semistructured one-to-one interviews were conducted that investigated eating behaviours of different generations within families, incorporating two types of families, those with an obese child and those with a normal weight child. What emerged was a substantive theory based on ordering of eating that explained differences in eating behaviours between the various families. The theory of ordering of eating enriches our understanding of familial influences on children's eating behaviours. It demonstrates how micro and macro order affects family choices concerning food and eating and the development of children's eating behaviours within this context. In addition, ordering of eating addresses the 'how' of eating and not simply the 'what' of eating. Current strategies for tackling childhood obesity tend to be more aligned with a medical approach where the emphasis is on controlling diet and the type of food intake which is a product of disordered eating behaviours. Focusing on family eating patterns and a return to the enjoyment of eating represents an innovative and promising alternative for those concerned with the development of interventions aimed at children's eating and childhood obesity, as these research findings demonstrate.