IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i4p2069-d748042.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Children’s Perceived Barriers to a Healthy Diet: The Influence of Child and Community-Related Factors

Author

Listed:
  • Paula Magalhães

    (Department of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
    These authors contributed equally to this work and should be listed as co-first authors.)

  • Catarina Vilas

    (Department of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
    These authors contributed equally to this work and should be listed as co-first authors.)

  • Beatriz Pereira

    (Department of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal)

  • Cátia Silva

    (Department of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal)

  • Hélder Oliveira

    (Department of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal)

  • Camila Aguiar

    (Department of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal)

  • Pedro Rosário

    (Department of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal)

Abstract

A healthy diet influences the promotion and maintenance of health throughout an individual’s life. Many individuals struggle to have a healthy diet, despite it being mainly under their control. The current study aims to explore children’s perceived barriers to a healthy diet. A qualitative study with the open-ended question, “Please identify the top 5 barriers to a healthy diet”, was undertaken between January–June 2019 in which 274 students from the 5–6th grades wrote down their answers to the open-ended question. Content analysis was used to analyze responses with a codebook based on the Six C’s Model. Five categories were identified: Child, Clan, Community, Country, and Culture-related barriers. Findings showed that the barriers most highlighted were in the Child sphere (e.g., dietary intake) and the Community sphere (e.g., peer food choices). Children seldom referred to barriers from the Clan sphere, i.e., related to family (e.g., food available at home). Additionally, it seems that girls emphasize more barriers from the Child sphere, while boys emphasize more barriers from the Community sphere. Due to the qualitative nature of this study, interpretation of the data should take into account the specific characteristics and context of the sample. Nevertheless, the current data are helpful in identifying implications for practice, for example, the need to empower children with tools (e.g., self-regulation-based interventions) likely to help them overcome perceived barriers. Finally, advocacy groups may help set environmental and structural changes in the community likely to facilitate children’s healthy choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Paula Magalhães & Catarina Vilas & Beatriz Pereira & Cátia Silva & Hélder Oliveira & Camila Aguiar & Pedro Rosário, 2022. "Children’s Perceived Barriers to a Healthy Diet: The Influence of Child and Community-Related Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-13, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:4:p:2069-:d:748042
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2069/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2069/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parisa Amiri & Fazlollah Ghofranipour & Fazlollah Ahmadi & Farhad Hosseinpanah & Ali Montazeri & Sara Jalali-Farahani & Ali Rastegarpour, 2011. "Barriers to a healthy lifestyle among obese adolescents: a qualitative study from Iran," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 56(2), pages 181-189, April.
    2. Beatriz Pereira & Pedro Rosário & José Carlos Núñez & Daniela Rosendo & Cristina Roces & Paula Magalhães, 2021. "Food Availability, Motivational-Related Factors, and Food Consumption: A Path Model Study with Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-13, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cátia Silva & Beatriz Pereira & Gabriela Figueiredo & Pedro Rosário & José Carlos Núñez & Paula Magalhães, 2023. "Self-Efficacy to Regulate Eating Behaviors Scale for Children: A Validation Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-11, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hormoz Sanaeinasab & Mohsen Saffari & Mojtaba Nazeri & Aliakbar Karimi Zarchi & Bradley J. Cardinal, 2013. "Descriptive analysis of Iranian adolescents' stages of change for physical activity behavior," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 280-285, September.
    2. Tianwei Zhong & Hui Liu & Yan Li & Jing Qi, 2022. "Correlates of Physical Activity of Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review of Cross-Sectional Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Anisa Riaz & Kanwal Asghar & Farkhanda Anjum & Ayesha Riaz, 2024. "Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Regarding Food Safety and Its Effects on Human Health in Punjab, Pakistan," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 13(1), pages 482-488.
    4. Cátia Silva & Beatriz Pereira & Gabriela Figueiredo & Pedro Rosário & José Carlos Núñez & Paula Magalhães, 2023. "Self-Efficacy to Regulate Eating Behaviors Scale for Children: A Validation Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-11, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:4:p:2069-:d:748042. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.