Purpose: The family meal is recognised as a health-promoting activity for families, however popular discourse suggests that changes to contemporary family life have led to the demise in regularity and quality of the family meal. While research has been conducted on family meals over the last three decades, there is no explicit investigation of the temporal pattern of family meals. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the evolution of family meal practices over the last thirty years, to help with developing realistic expectations of this family ritual, and understanding how we can harness it to promote healthful behaviours, without increasing burden and pressure on parents.
Methods: A comparative analysis of qualitative interview data with South Australian parents in the 1990s (n=32) and interview data with South Australian parents in 2020 (n=22) was undertaken. Grounded theory methods of analysis were conducted and used to determine temporal patterns in family meal experiences between the two time points.
Results: The results indicated stability in many family meal experiences across time, particularly in the value placed on them and their significance in family life. Negotiations balancing time, cost, and food preferences persisted. Key differences included time available to make the meal and cost of ingredients being more acutely considered in 2020, and schedules of family members becoming harder to reconcile. While more fathers were involved in family meal practices in 2020, in many cases women were still undertaking most of this work, as in the 1990s.
Conclusions: This study employed innovative methodology, intentionally replicating a study from 30 years ago to allow for an across-time comparison. This unique exploration identified that many family meal practices remained consistent, despite changes to family life such as increasing pressures of time, cost, and schedules. The stability of family meal values and practices, and these increasing pressures on family life are important to consider when making recommendations, designing interventions, and creating services targeting the family meal. We must acknowledge that the existing promotion of family meals may not be aligned with the shifts occurring in society, which may lead to reinforcing unrealistic expectations.

Purpose: New marital relationships require couples to negotiate their leisure-time physical activity (LTPA). We examined continuity and change in LPTA of couples during their transition into marriage. Methods: We conducted a Qualitative Descriptive Study with 20 women and 14 male partners residing in the northeastern United States. We purposively recruited couples about to marry, conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews at the time of recruitment and again one year later, and iteratively analyzed the data using thematic analysis. Results/Findings: Qualitative analyses revealed that LTPA involvements were complex and dynamic processes evolving from pre-dating through newlywed periods. Couples’ LTPA experiences sometimes involved tension and conflict between collective leisure desires and individual LTPA preferences, which required negotiation and reconciliation. Most partners desired collective/shared LTPA, but some partners sought individual/separate LTPA because their own LTPA preferences and skills did not match with those of their marital partner. We inductively identified three primary patterns of LTPA involvement based on couples’ own insights about and experiences of LTPA: joint patterns (high interaction between partners during shared LTPA), parallel LTPA patterns (low interaction between partners during shared LTPA), and individual LTPA patterns (LTPA involvements occurred separate from the mate). We also identified contextual LTPA patterns that merged two primary patterns—e.g., an individual/joint LTPA pattern—which facilitated individual LTPA within collective LTPA contexts and reconciled individual partner LTPA aims with couple desires for shared leisure. Conclusions: Our findings revealed multiple layers and complex components of negotiating individual and collective LTPAs within the context of marital relationships. This study contributes innovative understandings of couples’ LTPA patterns through its use of inductive methods, rather than the deductive approaches of prior research, to identify involvements in joint, parallel, and individual LTPA patterns. Couples’ engagements in contextual LTPA patterns revealed how couples accommodated individual LTPA participation within collective LTPA contexts and thus satisfied spouses’ desires for both LTPA autonomy and shared LTPA experiences. These novel findings contribute new knowledge about LTPA among married couples, which advances understanding of physical activity in couples and families and may help individuals to engage in healthy and satisfying lifelong physical activity.

Purpose
Childhood obesity impacts 19.7% of children and adolescents in the United States and is a serious health problem.¹ Nutrition tracks over time in children, thus supporting the importance of establishing healthy eating habits at a young age.² Very few children in the US meet the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables.³ Family provides the social context where behavior patterns develop and influence children’s physical activity levels and nutrition.⁴ Providing children with fruit and vegetables has been associated with increasing the likelihood that the child will consume them.⁵
Effective family-based prevention programs must utilize information on the link between parenting and child behaviors. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of nutrition parenting practices on children’s objectively measured fruit and vegetable consumption. We hypothesize that increased parental support for fruit and vegetable consumption will be associated with increased children’s fruit and vegetable consumption.
Methods
Data collected from parents includes the Instrumental Social Support Scale (ISSPS) and Emotional Social Support Scale (ESSPS) for fruit and vegetable intake. The noninvasive veggie meter technology is utilized to assess children’s fruit and vegetable consumption. The Veggie Meter is a noninvasive research grade instrument that detects and quantifies carotenoids in the skin in less than 2 minutes.⁶ Carotenoids are phytochemicals found in fruit and vegetables and are only obtained from diet. The Veggie Meter has been found to be a reliable objective instrument for measuring fruit and vegetable consumption (r=.81, P<.001).⁷
Results
Preliminary results will be provided. Bivariate comparisons of continuous skin carotenoid scores between desirable and undesirable parenting practices groups will be assessed using two sample t-test or Wilcoxon Rank Sum, as appropriate. Linear regression will be used to estimate differences in mean skin carotenoid scores between desirable and undesirable parenting practices.
Conclusions
Effective family-based prevention programs must utilize information on the link between parenting and child behaviors. This research will fill a gap by identifying potential relationships between parenting practices for healthy eating behaviors and children’s objectively measured fruit and vegetable consumption. The results will provide the foundation for the development of a family-based intervention program.

1. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017–March 2020 Prepandemic Data Files Development of Files and Prevalence Estimates for Selected Health Outcomes, http://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc:106273 (2021). https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/106273
2. Downing KL, Hinkley T, Timperio A, et al. Volume and accumulation patterns of physical activity and sedentary time: longitudinal changes and tracking from early to late childhood. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2021/03/17 2021;18(1):39. doi:10.1186/s12966-021-01105-y
3. Children eating more fruit, but fruit and vegetable intake still too low. 2014. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0805-fruits-vegetables.html
4. Davison KK, Jurkowski JM, Lawson HA. Reframing family-centred obesity prevention using the Family Ecological Model. Public Health Nutr. Oct 2013;16(10):1861-9. doi:10.1017/s1368980012004533
5. Birch L, Savage JS, Ventura A. Influences on the Development of Children's Eating Behaviours: From Infancy to Adolescence. Can J Diet Pract Res. 2007;68(1):s1-s56.
6. Radtke MD, Poe M, Stookey J, et al. Recommendations for the Use of the Veggie Meter® for Spectroscopy-Based Skin Carotenoid Measurements in the Research Setting. Current Developments in Nutrition. 2021;5(8)doi:10.1093/cdn/nzab104
7. Ermakov IV, Ermakova M, Sharifzadeh M, et al. Optical assessment of skin carotenoid status as a biomarker of vegetable and fruit intake. Arch Biochem Biophys. May 15 2018;646:46-54. doi:10.1016/j.abb.2018.03.033

Author details: Jeffrey T.H So*, Smita Nambiar, Rebecca Byrne, Danielle Gallegos and Kimberley A. Baxter
*Corresponding and presenting author

Purpose: Parents are important gatekeepers in shaping their children’s dietary behaviours. Families experiencing disadvantage may employ different feeding strategies due to resource constraints. Within the context of responsive feeding, little is known about how fathers engage in feeding whilst experiencing food insecurity or chaos in the household. This study aims to explore the extent of fathers’ feeding involvement and the relationships between paternal feeding practices, food insecurity, and household and work chaos.
Methods: Australian fathers (n=264) with young children participated in a cross-sectional study involving an online survey to assess their feeding involvement and practices, household food insecurity, and household and work chaos. Feeding practices were measured for two different age groups (children <2 years and children 2 – 5 years) using validated, age-appropriate instruments. These instruments measured constructs related to coercive control, structure, and autonomy support. Multivariable linear regression models were used to examine the relationship between the key variables and each feeding practice, adjusting for sociodemographic factors.
Results: Fathers reported actively engaging in daily family meal preparation and child feeding. Three-quarters of the sample were food insecure (77%, 170/222), of these 58% experienced very low food security. Food insecurity had a greater impact on adults compared to children (71% versus 48%) and was associated with higher levels of household chaos. Food insecurity was linked to increased ‘persuasive feeding’ (B: 0.552, p=0.016) and ‘parent-led feeding’ (B: 0.472, p=0.030) in the younger child group. Household chaos was positively associated with coercive control practices in both younger and older child groups, with the strongest associations for ‘using food to calm’ (B: 0.068, p<0.001) and ‘overt restriction’ (B: 0.048, p=0.005), respectively. In fathers with older children, household chaos was negatively associated with two autonomy support practices, with the most notable being ‘repeated presentation of new foods’ (B: -0.038, p=0.013). Structure practices had no significant relationships with any factors, and work chaos did not predict the feeding practices measured.
Conclusions: These findings emphasise the need for societal and structural support to address food insecurity and household chaos. Tailored strategies are crucial to support fathers in ensuring optimal nutrition and responsive feeding for their children.