Abstract
Childhood obesity is considered one of the most important public health problems around the world. Chile is currently one of the Latin American countries with a high prevalence of childhood obesity. Given that parents' food parenting practices shape their children's lifelong eating habits, addressing those practices is key to curbing later problems of obesity. However, studies of the influences on Chilean parents' food parenting practices are scarce. Hence, this study explores factors that influence food parenting practices of preschool-aged children in Chile. Qualitative research, using interviews with the photo-elicitation technique. Metropolitan Region, Chile. Twenty-five parents from families recruited from public childcare centres. Through a thematic analysis with an inductive approach, we identified five themes that influence food parenting practices: (1) parents' previous experiences and how they determine their current goals and beliefs; (2) responses to the child's characteristics; (3) the influences of other family members, especially grandparents; (4) parents' nutritional knowledge; and (5) living contexts, especially limited budgets and lack of time. The study reveals multilevel influences, which converge at the family level, on food parenting practices. A family-centrerd approach that addresses the mentioned influences is necessary to improve the management of the childhood obesity problem in Chile.
Highlights
Childhood obesity is considered one of the most important public health problems around the world [1]
Through a thematic analysis with an inductive approach, we identified five themes that influence food parenting practices: 1) Parents’ previous experiences and how they determine their current goals and beliefs; 2) Responses to the child’s characteristics; 3) The influences of other family members, especially grandparents; 4) Parents’ nutritional knowledge; 5) Living contexts, especially limited budgets and lack of time
Our goal was to explore the perspectives of Chilean parents from low-income families regarding the food parenting practices they use with their children, using a qualitative approach
Summary
Childhood obesity is considered one of the most important public health problems around the world [1]. In Latin America, overweight status (weight-for-height over +2 SD) in children under five years old has increased from 6.2% in 1990 to 7.5% in 2019 [2]. These figures are higher than the global prevalence, especially in South America [2]. The World Obesity Federation has estimated that despite the implemented government policies such as food marketing regulations for children, Chile has only a 7% chance of curbing childhood overweight by 2025 [7]
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