Preventing Childhood Obesity - Evidence Policy and Practice.pdf

Evidence of the infl uence of home and family environment
process evaluation of the multi - component Pro
Children intervention, including activities to get
parents involved in the project, showed that a higher
level of parental involvement was beneficial for the
pupil ’ s fruit and vegetable intake as well as parental
fruit and vegetable intake. 25,44 However, only a small
proportion of the parents did actually participate in
the parental activities. 25 Activities that the pupils and
parents had to do together were most popular, such
as going to the supermarket together, while very few
parents did activities that they had to do on their own,
such as parental meetings at school or visiting the Pro
Children website. Therefore, more attention should
be given towards finding strategies to get parents
involved in school - based projects.
In summing up, this chapter has demonstrated the
vast influence parent ’ s have on their children ’ s behavior,
especially with regard to physical activity and food
consumption. It is, therefore, essential for parents to
model appropriate behavior in front of their children
and encourage a physically active lifestyle rather then
promoting sedentary behaviors, such as excessive television
viewing and/or computer use. This should
stem from the physical home environment (what
foods they are providing?), the socio - cultural environment
(what is considered acceptable foods?) and
the economic environment (are the affordable
foods appropriate?). On a wider scale, environmental
factors, such as accessible and appropriate parks and
footpaths should be available in all suburbs, regardless
of the level of disadvantage. Future interventions may
look towards dispelling the myth or belief that healthy
foods are always more expensive, especially in lower
SES areas.
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