Introduction
Proper nutrition is always an important factor towards healthy living. Good choices regarding nutrition care enables one lead a long healthy life. This brings out the reason why proper and healthy feeding during childhood helps in reinforcing lifelong eating habits that contribute to the overall well being of the child. This also enables them fulfill their potential. Parents can help their children in eating right by practicing healthy eating habits since the early stage of their life.
Most children in the United States of America are suffering from obesity due to bad eating habits (Carmona, 2003). Although in some situations obesity may be attributed to children’s bad eating habits, most of the time less parental concern on what children feed on during their early stages is a major contributor to obesity cases.
While proper childhood nutrition leads to a better physical and cognitive development, studies show that under-nutrition affects the health of the growing child negatively and this may be translated to weak adulthood and poor economic impacts in future. Thus, it is better to understand what the parents attitude are towards childhood nutrition and what role they play in ensuring their children take a balanced diet since the early part of their lives.
Background and Significance
Studies show that prevalence of obesity in the United States of America is on the rise thus a better understanding on the parental attitudes towards childhood nutrition need to be investigated and understood. This makes it important, during childhood, that a parent teaches children about good eating habits.
Parental attitude towards childhood nutrition is influenced by many factors, which range from the parents income to the parent’s level of education. No matter how positive or concerned a parent sometimes may be towards what their children feed on, poverty may work as a barrier towards good childhood nutrition and thus the parent may just be considered with what she or he can afford (Nelson, 2000).
It is important to note that health habits taught and demonstrated to the young child during the early stages of life can set the foundation for a healthy and eating lifestyle. This in return helps in reducing future complications that may be related to nutritional factors (Clark, Holt, Sofka, 1998).
According to Associated Press (2010), 32% of US kids suffer from cases of being overweight and the press release goes further and indicates that while a decade ago the government had predicted a 5% children to be overweight or obese, the recent government updates show the high figure of “32% as of 2007-2008” (Par 11).
A document from the Department of Health from New York indicates that the number of overweight children has increased of late with 10% of 4 and 5 years kids suffering from cases of being overweight and more cases are prevalent in girls than in boys.
The paper goes further and indicates that as the children grow older, parent attitudes towards what their children take becomes less and less. This can be justified by the fact that that as children grow older, cases of obesity increases (Department of Health, 2007). Another factor which can be attributed to poor childhood nutrition is employment. Parents who spend most of their time in jobs spend less time with their kids and thus tend to be less concerned with what their children feed on (Crepinsek & Burstein, 2004).
Most of the time these parents take their children to fast food joints rather than finding time and preparing for their families a balanced diet meal, to the poor families much cannot be blamed on the parent rather on their purchasing power, junk food is the only easily affordable food and thus to them as far as their kids tummies are full no matter how concerned about what their children feeds on there is nothing they can do to afford a better meal.
With lot of statistics showing the alarming rates of obesity among the children in the United States, and doctors agreeing that the primary causes of obese among children are eating the wrong kind of foods and children getting less and less time for exercises, parents are seen as the only change agent that can help these children change their eating habits.
As long as the parents are willing to change their responsibilities, teach their children health lifestyles and invest more on what their kids feed on, the cases of obesity and overweight are going to reduce. The parents of these children must change their care free attitudes about what their kids feed on and advise their children on eating certain meals that meet specific nutritional needs.
As fast foods take toll on majority of children’s health, child obesity has grown higher and higher. Parents must start cooking nutritionally balanced meals for their children if they want their future to be healthy and secure.
The alternative to parents changing their attitudes towards healthy eating of their children is to advise the children themselves on the health benefits of eating a healthy meal and the reduced health complications as a result. In the school system a new curriculum should be enacted that teaches children on healthy eating and the benefits which accompany health eating such as reduced cases of obesity.
In most of the cases, the attitude of the parent towards childhood nutrition may be influenced by factors outside the scope of the parent. There exists several advantages for learned parent over a less learned parent since they understands the essence of a balanced diet as shown in a study conducted in Cambodia, the likelihood of their feeding their children on a balanced meal is high compared to the others (Miller & Rodgers, 2009).
For example while a learned mother might buy balanced diet meals to prepare for her child an illiterate mother might not see the necessity of buying a healthy meal her assumption might be the assumption that as long as the child is full then there is no problem.
Further evidence shows that the level of the mother’s income can influence the attitude of the parent toward childhood nutrition; in that with higher levels of income among women, children might be fed on better and balanced meals compared to non working mothers while the father’s income may be used in other sectors rather than on the food sector thus reducing its influence on the attitude the parent may have on childhood nutrition.
When all these factors are looked into and a better economic environment created, parents will change their attitudes towards childhood nutrition and will invest more on what their kids feed on for a better and secure future.
Procedures
A sample of 50 parents who will meet the criteria for the focus group will undergo the survey while an extra 50 parents who meets the same criteria as those in the focus group will act as the sample for the control. A structured questionnaire will be used to ensure the clarity of questions and answers.
For analysis, we shall use statistical analysis software (SPSS) which will be used to analyze the control and check the validity and reliability of the results. We intend to use both qualitative and quantitative methods in order to obtain and assess the parent’s attitudes towards childhood nutrition.
Qualitative research will be employed in the form of focus group discussions in order to understand and record the parent’s attitude towards what their children feed on. We shall use the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to identify the variables which will be monitored, measured, and compared. The parents in this sample will be those whose children are below 15 years of age. Descriptive statistics will be used for calculating means and standard deviations according to the number of parents who will give similar responses.
Hypothesis
How do parents’ attitudes affect childhood nutrition?
Does the age of the child affect the parent’s attitude towards childhood nutrition?
How does the mother’s income affect the parent’s attitude towards childhood nutrition?
How does the father’s income affect the parent’s attitude towards childhood nutrition?
How does the employment of the parent affect the parent’s attitude towards childhood nutrition?
The variables that shall be investigated in our study are:- age of the child, father’s income, mother’s income, parent’s level of education and finally whether the mother or the father is fully or part time employed, at which ages does the parent attitude towards what the child feeds on weakens or dies away completely.
By collecting and analyzing these variables through a regression analysis, which nowadays can be done by the use of statistical packages such as SPSS. We shall test the hypothesis of how the above factors influence the parents’ attitude towards childhood nutrition.
The data shall be collected from the sample size of the 50 parents and then it will be fed to SPSS from where we shall observe the significance of our variables towards the parent decision on the childhood nutrition. The limitations of the above method will be the multi collinearity of some of the variables that we will be investigating. With the rising population and high cases of obesity, random selection might be biased in some cases.
Our main assumption is that all parents shall respond positively towards the questions in the questionnaire so as to enable us conduct a good study. In order to establish the validity or the reliability of the questionnaire we shall feed the data into a statistical package then conduct a regression analysis to test the significance of the above variable and their effects towards the attitude, which parents have towards childhood nutrition. The questionnaire is as attached in the Appendix.
Expected Results
After conducting the analysis, we expect the age of the child to have influence on parents attitudes towards childhood nutrition since as the child grows the parent may become reluctant on following to the book the guidelines of healthy eating.
We also expect that as per our second hypothesis, the father’s income affects the parents’ attitude towards childhood nutrition. The fathers income should have little if any effect on the childhood nutrition since most of the times, the mothers are the one who feeds children thus while the fathers income may be invested in other sectors, the mothers income will tend to be mainly on what the child feeds on thus it is expected the fathers income to have very little significance on the parent attitudes towards childhood nutrition.
On the mother’s income, we expect it to have effects on her attitude towards childhood nutrition since if she is financially well endowed, she might spend more on the child meals compared to a lowly earning mother who cannot afford to buy quality food thus their attitude towards what their children feed on may be affected by the level of income.
On the hypothesis whether the parent employment status either partly or fully affects the parent attitude towards childhood nutrition is also likely to have a significant effect towards parental attitude on childhood nutrition. For example if the parent is fully employed he or she might not have enough time to invest fully in the childhood nutrition thus may be less interested on what the child feeds on. The mother may also not have time to breast feed her child. The results shall be represented by use of graphs and tables.
Reference List
Associated Press (2010). First Lady Is Tackling Childhood Obesity. Web.
Carmona, R. H. (2003). The Obesity Crisis in America. Web.
Clark, M; Holt, K., and Sofka, D. (1998). Early Childhood Nutrition Resource Guide: Arlington, VA: National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health. Web.
Crepinsek, M. K., and Burstein, N. R. (2004). Maternal Employment and Children’s Nutrition: Food Assistance & Nutrition Research Program. Web.
Department of Health. (2007). Preventing Childhood Obesity: Tips for Parents. Web.
Miller, J. E., and Rodgers, Y. W. (2009). Mother’s Education and Children’s Nutritional Status: New Evidence from Cambodia. Asian Development Review, vol. 26, no.1, pp. 131−165.
Nelson, M. (2000). Childhood nutrition and poverty: Department of Nutrition and Dietetics. Web.