Fruits and Vegetables at Home: Child and Parent Perceptions

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.