Relationship Between Childhood Experience and Adult Food Patterns

Heba Jad NFSC 429-02 5/8/2013

Abstract: This qualitative research study looks at food patterns among college students and if they gained their food patterns from experiences that they went through during their childhood. Since many adults still follow food patterns and meal rules that they used to follow as children, four adults from different ethnic groups were interviewed about their food patterns as adults and how childhood food patterns impacted their current habits. Each interview was conducted at a separate time, lasting from 20-30 minutes each. Food preferences play an important role in food choices and food consumption both in adults and children. This qualitative research didnt identify consistent trends between childhood and adult eating patterns. The results were somewhat 50/50 among the four participants.

Introduction: Parents have an important role on childrens eating patterns (Fitzgerald, Heary, Nixon, and Kelly 293). Children are raised on rules that their family develop and they are also influenced by eating behaviors that are taught from their parents. The advantages of these rules on future eating behavior has important implications for parents who are trying so hard to help their children develop healthy eating behaviors (Puhl & Schwartz 284). Interaction between parents and children about food is a very good way to make a child build a healthy lifestyle from a young age. Parents should teach their children about nutrition and explain to them why it is important so they can grow up thinking about it and thinking about being healthy and not getting sick. It is also important for parents to serve food for children in a nice way to attract the child, for example, cutting their fruits

and vegetables in a pretty and entertaining way. Some parents always wonder if they should develop rules during mealtimes or not, the question is somewhat difficult. Some rules may restrict access to food (e.g., You are not allowed to eat junk food), while others encourage eating (e.g., You must eat everything on your plate), or also some are designed to elicit desired behavior (e.g., You will get an ice cream if you finish your homework early) (Puhl & Schwartz 283-284). The aim of this research is to find out if college students were influenced by their childhood food experience and to identify trends between various cultures. Looking at the qualitative article by Fitzgerald, Heary, Nixon, and Kelly which compares childhood with adolescents food experience among the Irish population, and the quantitative study by Puhl and Schwartz that examined the memories of childhood food rules and how it links to adulthood helped me develop questions to ask the four college students that I interviewed. Both articles helped me focus on how food rules during childhood affected the individual as an adult. I was interested in finding the difference in food rules (if any) between the four different participants that came from different ethnic groups. Another factor that both articles helped me established is how healthy the participants ate as children compared to as adults.

Methods: Participants for this research had an age ranging from 21 to 23 years old and are currently attending college full time. The first informant is a 22 year old male from the Middle East with an average height and weight. The second informant is a 21 year old Indian female. Both her height and weight falls below average. The third informant is a

23 year old Hispanic female who has an average height and weight. Last but not least is the fourth informant who is a 23 year old Korean female that also has an average of height and weight. During the interviews, all participants were asked the same questions. The questions were about their current food pattern in relation to their childhood experiences: As a child did your family have some rules during meal times? If yes what were they and do you still follow these rules as an adult? Were you a picky eater? If yes, are you still a picky eater? Were you forced to eat your fruits and vegetables? Do you consume enough fruits and vegetables as an adult? Were you rewarded as a child with any type of foods? If yes, what kind of food were they? And do you still reward yourself? How many meals and snacks did you consume as a child? Are they still the same number as an adult? Each interview ranged from 20 to 30 minutes depending on how responsive the participant was. The first interview occurred on March 27, 2013 at the Merriam Library. The informant answered the questions slightly briefly, but at the end I got all the information I wanted. The second interview which also took place on the 27th of March was at the participants apartment. This participant was very detailed about some questions for example she gave me very good information about her childhood answering the first question. The third informants interview took place on March 28th at the Merriam Library. She was very detailed and enjoyed talking about her food experience and meal patterns. Finally, the fourth participant was also interviewed at the Merriam Library on the 31st of March. The information she shared with me was very interesting since she come from an Asian ethnicity.

Once the data was collected from all participants, each interview was written into a field note and coded. Edge coding is a method to find different themes between the informants. From the coding, related themes and subthemes were identified. Information from each informant was compared with the others. By comparing, similar themes were found between the participants. Results and Discussion: Childhood and adulthood rules during meal times The theme that had similar responses among the four participants was whether they had rules during meal times as children. They all had yes as an answer. The first two participants (Middle Eastern and Indian) and the last participants (Korean) have rules that were based more on respect. For example one of the participants stated: My siblings and I are not allowed to lean on the table while eating. Another stated: During meal times, we wait for the eldest person to be seated first, we also wait for the eldest person to start eating before the younger ones. Moreover, the second participants (Hispanic) family had a rule to have all their meals on the dining table and not in front of the television. As adults, only the first two participants still follow these rules, especially when they are in a family gathering. The table below compares the four participants in following food rules as adults. Middle Eastern Rules during childhood Rules during adulthood Still follows same rules Still follows same rules Doesnt follow rules anymore Doesnt follow rules anymore Yes Yes Indian Hispanic Yes Korean Yes

When comparing to the rules that were in the study by Puhl and Schwartz, they were different kind of rules. The rules in Puhl and Schwartzs study was basically rules about what type of food and during what time the child can consume these foods.

Relationship between childhood and adulthood fruits and vegetables consumption One of the questions asked was if the participants were forced to eat their fruits and vegetables as children. The first and the third participants (Middle Eastern & Hispanic) were both forced from their parents to eat their fruits and vegetables. One stated: My parents had a hard time getting me to eat my vegetables, it had to be raw with ranch dressing on the side. However, only one of the participants (Hispanic) consumes a good amount of fruits and vegetables as an adult. The other two participants (Indian & Korean) both had similar answers, I wasnt forced to eat my fruits and vegetables because I ate it without being forced. Similarly with the above two participants, only one of these participants (Korean) currently consumes a good amount of fruits and vegetables.

Childhood

Adulthood

Middle Eastern Indian Hispanic Korean

Forced Not Forced

Not enough consumption Not enough consumption

Forced

Good consumption

Not Forced

Good consumption

Figure 1: Fruits and Vegetables Consumption

Food as a reward According to the study done by Dagmar Lesakova Analysis of Childhood Habits Influence on Consumption Behavior in Adulthood, students who currently use food as a reward at present, were likely to be rewarded with food also in their childhood. Three of the participants (Middle Easter, Hispanic & Korean) interviewed were rewarded with sweets as children. One stated: I was rewarded with candies if I cleaned my plate. The three informants reward themselves as adults, they all reward themselves when doing well in school. Two of them (Hispanic & Korean) reward themselves with sweets and the third (Middle Eastern) stated: When doing well on exams I reward myself by eating in a fancy restaurant.

Conclusion: This qualitative research does not give consistent findings that childhood eating habits and food patterns has a relationship with adult eating habits and food patterns. The results were 50/50 among the four participants that were interviewed. Some still follow the same food patterns they had as children and what they were taught by their parents and others dont. Some participants were influenced with the rules they had during mealtimes as children and still follow them and others were not influenced as much. Regarding fruits and vegetables consumption, of the two participants (Middle Eastern & Hispanic) who were forced to eat their fruits and vegetables as children only one of them (Hispanic) still consumes a good amount as an adult, the other participant doesnt

consume enough. This means that one participants was influenced from being forced and the other wasnt. These findings suggest that, parents should educate their children about nutrition to try and let them grow up in a healthy way. No one else has the power on children other than parents. So as parents, they should try their best and keep their children healthy at an early age.

References

Leskov, Dagmar. "Analysis Of Childhood Habits Influence On Consumption Behavior In Adulthood." Scientific Papers of the University of Pardubice, Series D. (2011): 119126. Print. Puhl, Rebecca, and Marlene Schwartz. "If you are good you can have a cookie: How memories of childhood food rules link to adult eating behaviors." (2003): n.pag. Web. 16 Apr 2013. Fitzgerald, Amanda, Caroline Heary, Elizabeth Nixon, and Colette Kelly. "Factors influencing the food choices of Irish children and adolescents: a qualitative investigation." Oxford University Press Vol. 25 No. 3. (2010): n.pag. Web. 16 Apr 2013.