"As a mother, I prefer to give a healthy snack, however..." Mothers' considerations and value conflicts while providing snacks to their 2-7-year-old-children

Summary:

Childhood obesity is a common and severe public health issue and has a high chance to track into adulthood. One of the behaviours contributing to childhood obesity is the consumption of energy-dense snacks which is highly prevalent among children. Mothers are mainly responsible for providing foods to their young children, using different considerations to choose a snack and sometimes experiencing value conflicts. Therefore, the overall aim of this thesis is to identify and provide insights into mothers’ considerations and value conflicts while providing snacks to their 2 to 7 years old children. Healthiness of the snack and child preference were the most used considerations. Value conflicts were mostly experienced when mothers provided snacks perceived as unhealthy. Higher educated mothers and mothers of first children showed more health-conscious behavior. Differences between nationalities were observed. The results obtained in this research could be relevant for providing information for health interventions and new product development.