ARS | Publication request: Identifying and clarifying values and reason statements that promote effective food parenting practices, using intensive interviews

Submitted to: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: March 22, 2011
Publication Date: November 1, 2011
Citation: Beltran, A., Hingle, M., Knesek, J., O'Connor, T., Baranowski, J., Thompson, D.J., Baranowski, T. 2011. Identifying and clarifying values and reason statements that promote effective food parenting practices, using intensive interviews. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. 43(6)531-535.

Interpretive Summary: Parents of preschool children commonly complain that they can't get their child to eat vegetables. Motivational variables are needed to motivate parents to more frequently use parenting practices shown to be effective at getting their child to eat vegetables. Self determination theory suggests that a person's values (e.g. health, religion, spirituality) motivate their behavior, and reasons are statements that relate a value to the behavior interest (e.g. eating vegetables will make my child healthy, a child eats vegetables will be healthier and thereby more likely to go to church). This manuscript reports intensive interviews conducted with parents of preschoolers to identify their most important values and to test reason statements for each value.

Technical Abstract: The objective was to generate and test parents' understanding of values and associated reason statements to encourage effective food parenting practices. This study was cross-sectional. Sixteen parents from different ethnic groups (African American, white, and Hispanic) living with their 3- to 5-year-old child were recruited. Interested parents were directed to a web site, where they provided screening information and informed consent. Two types of telephone interviews were used: semi-structured intensive interviews and cognitive interviews. The results show the most common core values identified in the semi-structured interview were religion/spirituality, family, and health, which appeared invariant across parent ethnicity. Parent responses to cognitive interviews enabled rephrasing of statements that were not well understood, the list of values was increased, and reason statements were added to cover the spectrum cited by parents. In conclusion, values and reason statements will be used to tailor intrinsic motivational messages for effective food parenting practices.