Repertoire of strategies used by French Canadian mothers living in Montreal to pressure their 10-year-old children to eat

摘要

This study is concerned with mothers' use of strategies directed toward their 10-year-old children to pressure them to eat. The objective is to document the repertoire of strategies and their context of use. This child-feeding practice is of interest because of its impact on the child's opportunities for the development of self-control based on responsiveness to hunger and satiety cues. A total of 24 interviews and one focus group were conducted with French Canadian mothers. Data analyses reveal four major themes associated with the contexts in which pressure to eat were used: food purchasing, food preparation, meal service, food consumption. Strategies related to the context of food purchasing stress the importance of children's influence on family decisions. The strategies used at the time of preparation of meals illustrate the burden of tasks a mother takes on to ensure that her child consumes a particular food. With regard to meal service, very few strategies take into account the appetite of the child. Finally, the variety of strategies deployed at the time of consumption of foods supports the importance of informing parents of the undesirable effect of techniques associated with forcing the child to eat. Avenues for future research are presented.