Perspectives of Black and Hispanic Children Living in Under-Resourced Communities on Meal Preparation and Grocery Shopping Behaviors: Implications for Nutrition Education

Authors

Chishinga Callender
Denisse Velazquez
Meheret Adera
Jayna M Dave
Norma Olvera
Tzuan A Chen
Shana Alford
Debbe Thompson

Publication Date

11-20-2021

Journal

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

DOI

10.3390/ijerph182212199

PMID

34831953

PMCID

PMC8618219

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

11-20-2021

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Black People, Child, Cooking, Diet, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Meals, Black or African American, minority, children, nutrition, meal preparation, grocery shopping, Black/African American, Hispanic, under-resourced, qualitative

Abstract

Minority children living in under-resourced communities are at the greatest risk for obesity and poor diet quality. Child involvement in meal preparation may be a helpful strategy to improve diet quality. This paper explores minority children's perspectives regarding this. Eighteen children participated in a mixed methods study (online surveys, telephone interviews). Descriptive statistics were calculated for child demographic and psychosocial factors. Thematic analysis was used to code and analyze the interviews. Most children reported having cooking experience (83%) and cooking with family (94%) and exhibited high cooking self-efficacy (21.8 ± 2.9) and positive cooking attitudes (25.7 ± 4.4). Children reported helping with meal preparation (50%) and grocery shopping (41%) sometimes. The qualitative data further supported the results obtained from the children's psychosocial factors. Most children noted the importance of learning to cook with an emphasis on life skills. Children also shared their level of involvement in cooking and grocery shopping. Most children reported using technology when cooking to find demonstration videos and recipes. These findings highlight that minority children participate in meal preparation and grocery shopping. Their perspectives are important for the development of nutrition education programs to achieve equitable dietary outcomes in minority families living in under-resourced communities.