Essential food and nutrition knowledge and skills for primary school children: Australian parents' opinions

Food and nutrition information requirements of Australian primary school parents

OBJECTIVE

To explore what Australian primary school parents want to learn about food and nutrition to improve their children's eating behaviours, as well as the associations between parents' personal and demographic characteristics and their views regarding their food and nutrition knowledge needs.

DESIGN

An online nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2021 using a mixed-methods approach. Logistic regression analysis was utilised to examine the relationship between parents' demographics, personal values and their views. Content analysis was performed using Leximancer.

SETTING

Australia.

PARTICIPANTS

Seven hundred and eighty-seven parents.

RESULTS

Fifty-one per cent wanted to learn more about food and nutrition to improve their children's healthy eating habits, and 77% of those preferred schools to provide that information. Online/printed newsletters and YouTube were the most preferred methods for receiving food and nutrition related information. Higher universalism-concern value (concern for the welfare of those in the larger society and world) scores were positively associated parents' preference for schools to provide food and nutrition-related information. Parents with non-English-speaking backgrounds and younger parents were more likely to want to learn about food and nutrition. Parents wanted to learn more about encouraging healthy eating, ideas for the lunchbox, food labels and age-specific portion sizes and recommendations.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings can inform public health educators and assist them in designing future food and nutrition education programmes and resources targeting primary school parents.

Parental support for free school lunches in Australian primary schools: associated factors and perceived barriers

OBJECTIVE

(1) To explore the feasibility of such programmes in Australia, this study examined parents' views on free school lunch provision. (2) To examine the associations between parents' demographic and personal characteristics and their support for free universal school lunches.

DESIGN

An online cross-sectional survey of parents.

SETTING

Australia, April 2021.

PARTICIPANTS

Seven hundred and eighty-seven parents took the survey. They had a mean age of 40. The respondents were predominantly female (95 %) and had a university degree (72 %).

RESULTS

Fifty-three percentage of the respondents agreed that all students should have access to healthy and well-balanced, free school lunches. Parents were concerned about healthiness, catering, allergies and cost of school-provided school lunches. Ethnic background, universalism values and education levels were significantly associated with support for free school lunch provision. Non-native English-speaking parents were almost three times more likely to support free universal lunches in primary schools than their native English-speaking counterparts. Parents with higher universalism-concern values were more likely to endorse free lunches in primary school. However, the level of education was negatively associated with parents' support for free school lunches.

CONCLUSIONS

The survey results highlight the complexity of parental views on free school lunch provision. Parents' concerns regarding lunches should be considered in developing school lunch programmes that meet the needs and preferences of diverse communities. These findings can be used to guide future primary school lunch provision initiatives.

Exploring Australian children's perceptions of a school-provided lunch model using a story completion method

Children in Australia currently bring a packed lunch to school from home. Many children are not consuming a healthy diet at school. There is interest from key stakeholders (e.g. education and the non-government sector, food service and parents/caregivers) to transform the Australian system to a school-provided model to improve children's diets, reduce parental burden and address food insecurity. To facilitate a successful transition to this system, it is important to consider the views of the children. We aimed to explore Australian primary school children's perceptions of a hypothetical school-provided lunch model. To achieve this aim, we undertook a qualitative study using the story completion method. Twenty-one grade-five children, from one public primary school in South Australia, participated in a once-off data collection session. Children were given a brief story stem and asked to complete a story about a hypothetical school-provided lunch scenario. The story data were analysed using thematic analysis. Four main themes were generated: the eating environment, the food provided, processes of the mealtime and time. The desire for choice was an additional overarching theme that cut across all themes. Our study provides the first exploration of South Australian children's perceptions of hypothetical school-provided meals. These insights can be used to co-design an acceptable school food system with children to create a positive eating environment that supports healthy eating habits they can carry forward into adulthood.

Parents’ Communication with Teachers about Food and Nutrition Issues of Primary School Students

Parents and teachers have a major influence in the formation of primary school children’s eating behaviours. Although the cooperation of parents and teachers has frequently been recommended in the promotion of healthy eating habits among primary school children, little is known about the communication between these two groups regarding food- and nutrition-related issues. This paper reports findings from semi-structured interviews with primary school parents (n = 19) and primary teachers (n = 17), as well as findings from a survey of 787 parents in Australia. Audio-recorded interviews were analysed using NVivo and descriptive statistics were calculated for the survey questions. The results indicated that their communications involved various topics, including allergies, lunchbox content, and supervision requests, through diverse communication channels. The risk of offending each other and time scarcity were reported as communication barriers. Parents mainly expected teachers to ensure that their children were given enough time to eat their lunch, teach healthy eating, and be good role models of healthy eating. This study highlights the need to overcome communication barriers between parents and teachers and support teachers in their multifaceted professional roles.