At-home and away-from-home eating patterns influencing preadolescents' intake of calcium-rich food as perceived by Asian, Hispanic and Non-Hispanic white parents

Abstract

Objective: To explore at-home and away-from-home eating patterns influencing Asian, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white preadolescents' intake of calcium-rich food from a parental perspective.

Design: Individual semistructured interviews.

Setting: Home or community site.

Participants: Convenience sample (n = 201) of self-reported Asian (n = 54), Hispanic (n=57), and non-Hispanic white (n = 90) parents of 10- to 13-year-old children recruited from community youth programs.

Phenomenon of interest: Description of at-home and away-from-home family eating patterns.

Analysis: NVivo software to code and sort transcript segments, qualitative data analysis procedures.

Results: Participants from all groups shared common at-home and away-from-home meal patterns. A lack of time often resulted in negative factors that impacted intake of calcium-rich food and beverages including breakfast on the run, fewer home-prepared or shared family meals, and more frequent meals eaten away from home. Asian and Hispanic parents indicated eating out less frequently than non-Hispanic white parents. Parents from all groups lacked expectations for their child to drink calcium-rich beverages with meals.

Conclusions and implications: Practical strategies are needed to facilitate intake of calcium-rich food and beverages through more frequent family meals at home and parental expectations for children's intake of calcium-rich beverages with meals.