Abstract
Objective: Examine child and parent perceptions of home food environment factors and associations with child fruit and vegetable (FV) intake. Design: Research staff administered surveys to children during after-school sessions, and parents completed surveys by mail or over the phone. Setting: Four urban elementary schools in St. Paul, Minnesota, serving primarily low-income populations. Participants: Seventy-three children (55 girls, 18 boys) and 1 parent/guardian per child participated in a theater-based intervention aimed at obesity prevention. Main Outcome Measures: Perceptions of home food environment factors (home FV availability, home FV accessibility; parental encouragement to eat FV; family meal frequency). Analysis: Descriptive statistics and paired t tests. Results: On average, child and parent perceptions of the home food environment were similar. When comparing child-parent dyad perceptions of home food environment, a moderate to high level of agreement (56%-86%) was found. Child report of home FV availability, home FV accessibility, parental encouragement to eat FV, and family meal frequency explained 26.7% of the variance in child FV intake, whereas parent report of these factors explained 4.9% of the variance. Conclusions and Implications: It is important to understand both child and parent perceptions of the home food environment when developing interventions aimed at increasing child FV intake.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 360-364 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was completed while the first author was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota. This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and by the National Institutes of Health grant number R21 DK072972 (PI: Neumark-Sztainer). The first author's time was supported by the Adolescent Health Protection Program (School of Nursing, University of Minnesota) grant number T01-DP000112 (PI: Bearinger) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Funding Information:
This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and by the National Institutes of Health grant number R21 DK072972 (PI: Neumark-Sztainer). The first author's time was supported by the Adolescent Health Protection Program (School of Nursing, University of Minnesota) grant number T01-DP000112 (PI: Bearinger) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords
- child
- fruit and vegetable intake
- home environment
- parent
