Identifying the Needs and Essential Components of a Food Literacy Program for Parents of Young Children Attending Childcare Centres in Edmonton, Canada

• Author / Creator

  Blanco Cervantes, Paulina

• Food literacy refers to the combination of “knowledge, skills and behaviours” that will help people to make food informed decisions. Parents are fundamental in the development of young children’s behaviours; thus, this represents a great opportunity to explore and improve parents’ food literacy which can ultimately impact the development of their children’s eating behaviours. Some of these early behaviours are likely to continue once children grow up which can also bring benefits to their health. Therefore, creating initiatives targeting parents and their children will help to enhance food literacy at the household level. The purpose of this study was to conduct a needs assessment with parents of children attending childcare centres in Edmonton to determine the general attributes and essential components of a food literacy program targeting parents and young children. This qualitative study consisted of a needs assessment guided by a focused ethnography. An exploration of the different components of food literacy was conducted using Vidgen’s food literacy model and definition. Parents of young children (aged 2-5 years old) were invited through three childcare centres. Parents must have had at least one child attending childcare to be included and be fluent in English. Three focus groups using a semi-structured interview guide were conducted from November 2017-January 2018 (4-6 participants in each group), a subset of parents also participated in follow-up individual interviews from April – May 2018. Verbatim transcriptions were generated. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and organized using NVivo 11 software.The mean age of the 15 participants was 35 years, while 13.3% were men and 86.7% women. No household had more than 2 children. Around 73% of the participants have a bachelor degree or above. The majority of parents were employed full-time (n=9). About half of the participants self-identified as Canadian, while the others self-identified among five other different ethnic origins. The main results of the needs assessment showed that parents are knowledgeable about food literacy. They make sure to have food accessible at home when they need it through formal or informal planning. Regarding the selection of food, parents pay particular attention to limiting sugar, sodium and processed foods for their households; different factors drive their decisions of specific grocery stores and foods. Parents developed their cooking skills through active and passive learning; they focused on practical, easy and healthy recipes for their households and they used different venues for recipe inspiration. Parents in this study considered diet important for children’s health, and they usually have family mealtimes. Furthermore, parents mentioned making decisions about portions sizes but usually respecting children’s hunger cues. Parents also indicated that children are interested in learning about food and parents take this as an opportunity to include them in the different areas of food literacy. Overall, parents experienced some barriers such as limited time, but they also had some facilitators to overcome those.According to parents in this study, the essential components of a food literacy program is a program that includes both, parents and children; involves cooking healthy meals appropriate for children’s age; is conducted during the weekends and equally important, is a fun activity. Parents were also highly interested in an online component to be able to learn more information or support each other.Results from this comprehensive exploration help to understand parent’s behaviours, knowledge, needs, barriers, facilitators, and interest regarding food literacy. The exploration along with the general and essential components highlighted in this thesis will help in the future planning of food literacy initiatives targeting this audience.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • parents
  • Food literacy
  • needs assessment
  • qualitative/focused ethnography
  • preschool children

• Graduation date

  Spring 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-c18q-nh29

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.