"Treats, sometimes food, junk.”: Exploring "extra‟ food with parents of young children

Abstract

This report presents the findings from an exploratory qualitative study which investigates parents‟ understanding and approaches to providing energy-dense and nutrient-poor “extra foods‟ to their preschool aged children. The study also explores the extent to which there is variation between parents of low and high socio-economic status (SES) in relation to these issues. The study involved 13 focus groups with 88 parents of 3-5-year-old children in distinctly socially disadvantaged and socially advantaged areas. Data from transcripts were analysed using framework analysis, which is an approach to qualitative thematic analysis that explicitly aims to generate practice and policy relevant findings.