Dimensions of isolation in children's eating habits

Objectives: Many studies have focused on what children eat, but few have explored children's understanding of food in relation to health, or factors influencing their food choices. Attempts to negotiate changes in eating behaviours among children require an understanding of the social dynamics of their eating behaviour. This study, funded by Diabetes UK, was undertaken to explore children's personal understanding of health related food messages to help inform health information providers' approaches to persuading change. This paper examines the theme of isolation, which emerged as a key finding from the data.

Methods: All primary schools in Cardiff, UK (n=104) were invited to participate. 26(25%) agreed, and 4 were purposively selected from demographically diverse areas of the city. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 74 children, and analysed through a process of thematic content analysis.

Results: Several key themes emerged; including the temporally, physically and socially isolated nature of children's eating experiences. Children ate together, copied each other and experimented together at school. At home eating was individualised and not a shared experience with adults: children ate at different times and in different places to adults, or meals were tailored to individual tastes and preferences (contrasting the peer conformity of eating in school). From the children's accounts, parents appeared largely unaware of their children's food choices at and away from home.

Conclusion: Clinicians using dietary advice as part of caries prevention need to identify child specific behaviours as well as the parental controlled aspects of diet when attempting to negotiate changes in eating behaviours. This research suggests that relying on the parents alone may not identify all the relevant behaviour. Preserving a distinction between their own diets and adults' may allow children to maintain a distinction between health consequences of eating in childhood and adulthood, a theme also prominent in their accounts.