Parental strategies for influencing the diet of their children – A qualitative study from disadvantaged areas

A social gradient is evident in the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity, to the disadvantage of children with low socioeconomic status (SES). Parents have a substantial influence on their children's dietary behaviours and weight development through the way they interact with the children around food. This study aims to explore the variation of how parents with low SES influence their child's dietary behaviours. A phenomenographic design and analysis was used on 29 sessions of motivational interviewing with mothers and fathers participating in the Healthy School Start intervention study in 2012. The parents had a maximum of 12 years of education and resided in areas targeted for socioeconomic development. In the sessions, parents explored changes that they wanted to make in the home environment regarding their child's dietary behaviours. Five categories of guidance of children's dietary habits were found ranging from silently guiding to enforcement. The categories of guidance were structurally related to each other through positive to negative impact of parental recognition of responsibility for the child's behaviours, level of trust in the child's satiety response, and level of parental emotional distress. The results suggest that parents use situation-specific guidance with both negative and positive impacts on child behaviours. Depending on the type of guidance used, parents are in need of different supporting strategies to enhance positive parent–child interplay. Suggestions for intervention strategies are provided where specific focus on parental responsibility recognition, emotional self-regulation, increased responsiveness, and cooperation between parents are highlighted.