Abstract
Low and medium SES children’s knowledge of the Australian Government’s recommendations for minimum daily intakes of fruit and vegetables and their reported actual intakes were investigated. In total, 524 children and 123 parents from four Australian primary schools responded to questionnaires on the topic of children’s fruit and vegetable preferences and intakes. Around half the children could accurately state the publicised fruit and vegetable daily intake guidelines (two servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables) and low SES children were more likely to be able to do so. Contrary to expectation, around a quarter of the children nominated fruit or vegetables as their favourite foods. Recommendations for social marketing programs designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among children are provided.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
References
Ajzen I (1991) The theory of planned behavior. Organ Behav Hum Dec 50:179–211
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (2007) Evaluation of the national Go for 2&5 campaign. Commonwealth of Australia
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (2008) Go for 2&5 fact sheet. Commonwealth of Australia. Available via DIALOG. www.healthyactive.gov.au/internet/healthyactive/publishing.nsf/Content/fact_serves.pdf/$File/fact_serves.pdf. Accessed 22 Aug 2008
Bagozzi RP (2000) On the concept of Intentional Social Action in consumer behavior. J Consum Res 27:388–396
Bandura A (1969) Social-learning theory of identification processes. In: Goslin DA(ed) Handbook of socialization theory and research, Ch. 3, pp 213-262
Baranowski T, Domel SB (1994) A cognitive model of children’s reporting of food intake. Am J Clin Nutr 59:212S–217S
Becker MH, Maiman LA, Kirscht JP, Haefner DP, Drachman RH (1977) The Health Belief Model and prediction of dietary compliance: a field experiment. J Health Soc Behav 18(4):348–366
Birch LL (1980) Effects of peer models food choices and eating behaviors on preschoolers’ food preferences. Child Dev 51:489–496
Blanchette L, Brug J (2005) Determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption among 6–12-year-old children and effective interventions to increase consumption. J Hum Nutr Diet 18:431–443
Blass E (2003) Biological and environmental determinants of childhood obesity. Nutr Clin Care 6:13–19
Burns C (2004) A review of the literature describing the link between poverty, food insecurity and obesity with specific reference to Australia.Victorian Health Promotion Foundation
Campbell K, Hesketh K (2007) Strategies which aim to positively impact on weight, physical activity, diet and sedentary behaviours in children from zero to five years. A systematic review of the literature. Obes Rev 8(4):327–338
Cleland V, Worsley A, Crawford D (2004) What are grade 5 and 6 children buying from school canteens and what do parents and teachers think about it? Nutr Diet 61:145–150
Danielzik S, Czerwinski-Mast M, Langnase K, Dilba B, Muller MJ (2004) Parental overweight, socioeconomic status and high birth weight are the major determinants of overweight and obesity in 5–7 y-old children: baseline data of the Kiel Obesity Prevention Study (KOPS). Int J Obesity 28:1494–1502
Dollman J, Ridley K, Magarey A, Martin M, Hemphill E (2007) Dietary intake, physical activity and TV viewing as mediators of the association of socioeconomic status with body composition: a cross-sectional analysis of Australian youth. Int J Obesity 31:45–52
Drewnowski A, Darmon N (2005) The economics of obesity: dietary energy density and energy cost. Am J Clin Nutr 82(1):265S–273S
Gill T, Bauman A, Rychetnik L et al (2004) Detailed review of the intervention studies: how do we best address the issues of overweight, obesity and cardiovascular disease? National Heart Foundation of Australia
Golan M, Crow S (2004) Parents are key players in the prevention and treatment of weight-related problems. Nutr Rev 62(1):39–50
Golan M, Weizman A (2001) Familial approach to the treatment of childhood obesity: conceptual model. J Nutr Educ 33(2):102–107
Hands B, Parker H, Glasson C et al (2004) Physical activity and nutrition levels in Western Australilan children and adolescents: Report. Perth, Western Australia. Western Australian Government
Lamerz A, Kuepper-Nybelen J, Wehle C, Bruning M, Trost-Brinkhues G, Brenner H, Hebebrand J, Herpertz-Dahlmann B (2005) Social class, parental education, and obesity prevalence in a study of six-year-old children in Germany. Int J Obesity 29:373–380
Marquis M (2004) Strategies for influencing parental decisions on food purchasing. J Consum Mark 21(2/3):134–143
O’Dea J, Caputi P (2001) Association between socioeconomic status, weight, age and gender, and the body image and weight control practices of 6- to 19-year-old children and adolescents. Health Educ Res 16(5):521–532
O’Dea J, Wilson R (2006) Socio-cognitive and nutritional factors associated with body mass index in children and adolescents: possibilities for childhood obesity prevention. Health Educ Res 21(6):796–805
Parmenter K, Waller J, Wardle J (2000) Demographic variation in nutrition knowledge in England. Health Educ Res 15(2):163–174
Perry CL, Bishop DB, Taylor G, Murray DM, Mays RW, Dudovitz BS, Smyth M, Story M (1998) Changing fruit and vegetable consumption among children: the 5-a-day Power Plus Program in St. Paul, Minnesota. Am J Public Health 88(4):603–609
Pettigrew S, Roberts M (2007) Mothers’ perceptions of their control over their children’s diets. Adv Consum Res 34:306–311
Proper K, Cerin E, Brown W, Owen N (2007) Sitting time and socio-economic differences in overweight and obesity. Int J Obesity 31:169–176
Rasanen M, Niinikoski H, Keskinen S, Helenius H, Talvia S, Ronnemaa T, Viikari J, Simell O (2003) Parental nutrition knowledge and nutrient intake in an atherosclerosis prevention project: the impact of child-targeted nutrition counselling. Appetite 41:69–77
Reynolds KD, Bishop DB, Chou C-P, Xie B, Nebeling L, Perry CL (2004) Contrasting mediating variables in two 5-a-day nutrition intervention programs. Prev Med 39:882–893
Roberts M, Pettigrew S (2007) A thematic content analysis of children’s food advertising. Int J Advertising 26(3):357–367
Sanigorski A, Bell A, Kremer P, Swinburn BA (2007) High childhood obesity in an Australian population. Obesity 15(8):1908–1912
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pettigrew, S., Pescud, M. & Donovan, R.J. Is children’s knowledge of fruit and vegetable recommendations related to their intakes?. Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark 6, 109–118 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12208-009-0035-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12208-009-0035-8