Family factors and fruit and vegetable consumption in Chinese preschool children living in Hong Kong
| Pages | 122-133 |
| Published date | 17 December 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-08-2017-0033 |
| Date | 17 December 2018 |
| Author | Ruth Chan,Suey Yeung,Cynthia Leung,Sing Kai Lo,Sandra Tsang |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Children's services,Sociology,Sociology of the family,Children/youth,Parents,Education,Early childhood education,Home culture,Social/physical development |
Family factors and fruit and vegetable
consumption in Chinese preschool
children living in Hong Kong
Ruth Chan, Suey Yeung, Cynthia Leung, Sing Kai Lo and Sandra Tsang
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the association of various family factors with children’s
fruit and vegetable (FV ) intake.
Design/methodology/approach –A cross-sectional analysis of data from 601 parent-child dyads with
children aged three to six years old was conducted. Parents completed questionnaires on child’s FV intake,
parentingstyles, parental feeding practices,family functioning,television viewing at mealtimesand frequency of
family meals. Logisticregression was used to assess the association between various family factors and the
likelihoodof meeting the child’s daily FV recommendationwith adjustment for different demographic variables.
Findings –Multivariate model adjusting for sociodemographic data indicated that meeting vegetable
recommendation was associated with lower frequency of dining with grandparents (Odds ratio (OR) 0.94,
95% confidence interval (CI) 0.89–0.99, p ¼0.031) and positively associated with parents using more
desirable parental feeding practices (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.09–1.21, po0.001). Meeting fruit recommendation
was associated with parents using more desirable parental feeding practices (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.09–1.17,
po0.001), higher frequency of dining with grandparents (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.00–1.10, p¼0.041), lower
frequency of dining with father (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.82–0.98, p¼0.014) and higher score on authoritative
parenting style (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01–1.08, p ¼0.009).
Originality/value –This study highlights the potential protective roles of various family factors, in particular
authoritative parenting style and parental feeding practices, such as role modeling, moderate restrictive
practices for less healthy foods, avoidance of forced feeding, and not using junk food as reward in relation to
meeting FV recommendation in children. The role of grandparents in influencing the young children’s eating
behaviors within the Chinese family warrants further investigation.
Keywords Child fruit intake, Child vegetable intake, Family factors, Family feeding practice,
Family meal frequency, Parenting style
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
A diet rich in fruit and vegetable (FV) intake is associated with reduced risk of chronic diseases
and all- cause mortality (Wang et al., 2014). However, most children in Hong Kong consume far
less FV than recommended (Woo et al., 2012). In view of a tracking of dietary patterns from
childhood to adulthood (Mikkilä et al., 2005), ensuring a healthy diet, especially a diet rich in fruits
and vegetables at early childhood, is therefore of great importance to the long-term health. Given
that family plays an essential role in the development of children’s diet, examining family factors
and their potential relationship with children’s dietary intake is important.
Family functioning is one of the family factors that has been connected with a number of
health-related behaviors in children (Kitzman-Ulrich et al., 2010). Studies have shown that
children from poorly functioning families experienced deleterious health effects (Chen and
Kennedy, 2004; Davis et al., 2011) and consumed fewer servings of FV than children from
well-functioning households (Renzaho et al., 2011). There is also an increasing body of research
on the role of parenting styles and dietary intake in young children. Indeed, parenting style
Received 5 August 2017
Revised 13 February 2018
Accepted 6 October 2018
This work was supported by the
Research Grants Council (General
Research Fund PolyU 5422/13H).
Ruth Chan is Senior Research
Fellow at the Department of
Medicine and Therapeutics,
The Chinese University of
Hong Kong, Sha Tin,
Hong Kong.
Suey Yeung was Research
Assistant at the Department of
Medicine and Therapeutics,
The Chinese University of
Hong Kong, Sha Tin,
Hong Kong.
Cynthia Leung is Professor at
the Department of Applied
Social Sciences, The Hong
Kong Polytechnic University,
Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Sing Kai Lo is Chair Professor
at the Faculty of Liberal Arts
and Social Sciences, The
Education University of Hong
Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong.
Sandra Tsang is Assoicate
Professor at the Department of
Social Work and Social
Administration, The University
of Hong Kong, Pokfulam,
Hong Kong.
PAGE122
j
JOURNAL OF CHILDREN'S SERVICES
j
VOL. 13 NO. 3/4 2018, pp. 122-133, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660 DOI 10.1108/JCS-08-2017-0033
To continue reading
Request your trial