ArticlePublic health nutrition2021
Dishing on dinner: a life course approach to understanding the family meal context among families with preschoolers.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- The forgotten voice of fathers in supporting children with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder: a scoping review.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Adolescence then and now: a qualitative study on older adults' perceptions of adolescence and factors influencing mental health in adolescents today.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Prevalence of daily family meals among children and adolescents from 43 countries.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Article
- Family Meal Environment Differentially Conditions the Prospective Association between Early Childhood Screen Time and Key Social Relationships in Adolescent Girls.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The family meal, a ritual frozen in time; an Australian grounded theory study.Health promotion international · 2023Article
- Barriers to Healthy Family Dinners and Preventing Child Obesity: Focus Group Discussions with Parents of 5-to-8-Year-Old Children.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Supporting early childhood routines to promote cardiovascular health across the life course.Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care · 2023Article
- Family mealtime emotions and food parenting practices among mothers of young children: Development of the Mealtime Emotions Measure for Parents (MEM-P).Maternal & child nutrition · 2022Article
- The Lived Experiences of Fathers in Mealtimes: A Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Literature.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Family meal participation is associated with dietary intake among 12-month-olds in Southern Norway.BMC pediatrics · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveFamily meals promote healthful dietary intake and well-being among children. Despite these benefits, family meal participation typically declines as children age. This study utilises life course theory to explore parents' perceptions of family meals in order to understand how parents' past experiences with family meals (in childhood and earlier in adulthood) influence their current beliefs and practices regarding mealtimes with their own children.
designSemi-structured qualitative interviews.
settingIn-person interviews were conducted in participants' homes.
participantsTwenty families (twenty-one mothers and fifteen fathers) with a child aged between 18 months and 5 years.
resultsThematic analysis revealed that families seemed to primarily approach mealtimes from one of three overarching orientations: meals for (1) Togetherness, (2) Nutrition Messaging or (3) Necessity. These orientations were informed by parents' own mealtime experiences and significant life transitions (e.g. parenthood). The current family meal context, including the messages parents shared with their children during mealtimes and the challenges experienced with mealtimes, characterised the orientations and families' approaches to mealtimes.
conclusionsParents' own early life experiences and significant life transitions influence why families eat meals together and have important implications for the intergenerational transmission of mealtime practices. Results may help to inform the content and timing of intervention strategies to support the continuation of frequent family meals beyond the preschool years.
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