Investigating Mothers' Decisions to Give Their 2- to 3-Year-Old Child a Nutritionally Balanced Diet

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Author(s)
Spinks, Teagan
Hamilton, Kyra
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2016
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Show full item recordAbstract
Objective: To identify, using the Theory of Planned Behavior, the sociocognitive factors that influence
mothers’ decisions toward healthy eating and limiting discretionary choices (eg, lollipops) for their children
aged 2–3 years.
Design: Prospective correlational design with a 1-week follow-up.
Participants: A total of 197 mothers completed the main survey; 161 completed the follow-up behavior
measure.
Variables Measured: Phase 1 assessed intention, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control;
and 2 additional variables of parental role construction and group norms. Phase 2 assessed follow-up
behavior.
Analysis: ...
View more >Objective: To identify, using the Theory of Planned Behavior, the sociocognitive factors that influence mothers’ decisions toward healthy eating and limiting discretionary choices (eg, lollipops) for their children aged 2–3 years. Design: Prospective correlational design with a 1-week follow-up. Participants: A total of 197 mothers completed the main survey; 161 completed the follow-up behavior measure. Variables Measured: Phase 1 assessed intention, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control; and 2 additional variables of parental role construction and group norms. Phase 2 assessed follow-up behavior. Analysis: Hierarchical multiple regressions (changes in multivariate coefficient) were used to predict mothers’ intentions and actions for the two target behaviors. Results: Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control predicted intentions; and intentions and perceived behavioral control predicted behavior for healthy eating and discretionary choices. Parental role construction was a significant predictor of intentions for both target behaviors. Conclusions and Implications: Results provide support for the application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in this context, as well as the addition of parental role construction. The findings illustrate the potential importance of developing intervention programs that account for sociocognitive factors to modify mothers’ child feeding practices that have implications for lifelong health outcomes.
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View more >Objective: To identify, using the Theory of Planned Behavior, the sociocognitive factors that influence mothers’ decisions toward healthy eating and limiting discretionary choices (eg, lollipops) for their children aged 2–3 years. Design: Prospective correlational design with a 1-week follow-up. Participants: A total of 197 mothers completed the main survey; 161 completed the follow-up behavior measure. Variables Measured: Phase 1 assessed intention, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control; and 2 additional variables of parental role construction and group norms. Phase 2 assessed follow-up behavior. Analysis: Hierarchical multiple regressions (changes in multivariate coefficient) were used to predict mothers’ intentions and actions for the two target behaviors. Results: Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control predicted intentions; and intentions and perceived behavioral control predicted behavior for healthy eating and discretionary choices. Parental role construction was a significant predictor of intentions for both target behaviors. Conclusions and Implications: Results provide support for the application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in this context, as well as the addition of parental role construction. The findings illustrate the potential importance of developing intervention programs that account for sociocognitive factors to modify mothers’ child feeding practices that have implications for lifelong health outcomes.
View less >
Journal Title
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
Volume
48
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2016 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
Subject
Biomedical and clinical sciences
Education
Psychology
Other psychology not elsewhere classified