10/01/03

American Dietetic Association Foundation's Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey Reveals Health and Lifestyle Issues Affecting America's Families

Media contacts: Prior to October 24, 2003
Lori Ferme, Kelly Liebbe or Tom Ryan  
800/877-1600, ext. 4802, 4769, or 4894
  
October 25-28, 2003
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas
Press Room: Room 202 AB
Phone:  210-582-7039
(Please do not publish these numbers.)

CHICAGO - Findings of the American Dietetic Association Foundation’s first Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey offer a wealth of information on children’s weight, eating habits and physical activity from the perspectives of both children and their parents.

“The survey’s results provide many insights, including the fact that kids and parents are not always on the same page when it comes to the details of their nutrition and eating habits,” said registered dietitian and American Dietetic Association spokesperson Gail Frank. “This information is important at a time when children’s nutrition and weight, especially childhood obesity, are among the most urgent health issues facing our entire country.

“Parents can use these results to have open and productive talks with their children, to learn more about what their kids think and are doing about nutrition and physical activity. Everyone from parents to policy makers can gain a deeper understanding of these issues from this survey and take actions that will improve the nutrition and health of all our children,” Frank said.

ADA spokespeople will be available for interviews at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo to discuss the Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey and the full range of nutrition and health issues.

Role Models
Regardless of age, children report that a parent is the person he or she “would like to be like most.” However, as a child grows older, the degree to which a parent is a role model lessens. In addition, boys are more likely to select their father as a role model, while girls more often select their mother.

Top responses for children ages 8 to 12 were “mother” (23 percent), “father” (17.4 percent) and 13.2 percent were unsure or did not have a role model. Top responses for children ages 13 to 17 were “mother” (13.8 percent), “unsure/no one” (13.4 percent) and “sports celebrity” (11.9 percent).

Top responses for boys were “father” (19.3 percent), “sports celebrity” (18 percent) and “unsure/no one (13.8 percent). Top responses for girls were “mother” (25.3 percent), “unsure/no one” (12.8 percent) and “music celebrity” (11.8 percent).

Regularity of Meal Times and Bed Times
Survey results show that parents are significantly more likely than their children to report that their children have regular meal and bed times. And boys are significantly more likely than girls to report both regular bed and meal times.

Meal times
Nearly 82 percent of parents reported their children have regular meal times “most” or “all of the time,” compared with slightly more than 74 percent of children. Nearly 80 percent of boys and 68.5 percent of girls reported regular meal times.

Bed times
Parents and children also differ on whether kids have regular bed times. About 80 percent of parents said their children go to bed at a regular time “most” or “all of the time,” compared with 63.3 percent of children. About 68 percent of boys report a regular bed time “most” or “all of the time,” while only 58 percent of girls report this.

Parent-Child Physical Activity
Survey findings show that on a daily basis, children are far more likely to eat a meal or watch TV with a parent than they are to engage in physical activity with a parent. Boys say they are significantly more likely to report eating a meal with a parent than girls.

Slightly more than 51 percent of children report eating a meal daily with a parent, 29.3 percent report watching TV daily with a parent and only 5.5 percent report engaging in physical activity daily with a parent.

In addition, 54.7 percent of boys and 47.9 percent of girls report eating a meal with a parent. Boys are more than twice as likely as girls to participate in physical activity with a parent “most days of the week” (boys: 15.6 percent, girls: 3.9 percent).

Why Children Eat
According to the survey, parents may be out of touch with why children eat. In many cases, parents overestimate younger kids’ hunger. In addition, the survey revealed that parents underestimate the extent to which many kids eat “because they are bored” or “because they are depressed.”

Eat because of hunger
Parents significantly overestimate their younger children’s (ages 8 to 12) hunger. Nearly 79 percent of parents believe their children eat because they are hungry “all” or “most of the time,” compared with 61.8 percent of children. Parents and older children (ages 13 to 17) came in closer agreement. Slightly more than 74 percent of parents believe their children eat because they are hungry “all” or “most of the time” compared with about 81 percent of older children.

Eat because of boredom
Parents significantly underestimate the degree to which their children eat out of boredom “most” or “all of the time.” While 43 percent of kids report eating because they are bored at least “some of the time,” just 35 percent of parents thought so.

Eat because of anger, sadness or depression
While more than 16 percent of children report eating because they are angry, sad or depressed “some of the time,” just half as many parents (8.5 percent) realize this is the case. Nearly 55 percent of children say they never eat because of these reasons, and more than 56 percent of parents report that their child never eats because of anger, sadness or depression.

Other findings from the ADAF survey show that slightly more than 1 percent of children eat because of anger, sadness or depression “all of the time.” More than 4 percent eat for these reasons “most of the time” and more than 22 percent say they are emotional eaters “every once in a while.”

When Children Eat
Children may be eating more frequently than their parents realize. Parents underestimate the extent to which their children are eating in front of the TV and/or computer. In fact, 13.6 percent of parents reported their child eating “all ” or “most of the time” while engaging in a sedentary activity, while more than 23 percent of children reported doing so. However, parents (42.1 percent) and children (45.2 percent) were in close agreement, reporting this occurs “some of the time.”

Also, parents significantly underestimate the extent of children’s eating after dinner. While more than 40 percent of parents believe this occurs “every once in a while,” just 32 percent of children said so.

Eating Lunch at School
More than 55 percent of America’s children between the ages of 8 and 17 eat a lunch purchased at school daily. Fewer than 21 percent of kids report they sometimes bring a lunch from home and sometimes eat a school lunch.

More than 43 percent of children say their main reason for not eating a school lunch is because their friends don’t. On the other hand, the survey results show that just 3 percent of parents believe their child is influenced by a friend.

About 52 percent of parents believe that their children do not eat a school lunch because they do not like the food offered, though just 29.1 percent of children said so. In addition, nearly 21 percent of girls “strongly agree” they do not like what is offered to eat at school, along with nearly 12 percent of boys.

Nutrition and Body Image Communication
To whom do children turn to discuss issues related to nutrition and their bodies? Survey results indicate that 67.2 percent of boys and 70.8 percent of girls would talk to their mom or dad about nutrition and healthy eating. Results also showed that girls (34.1 percent) are almost twice as likely to talk to their best friend about nutrition than are boys (17.2 percent). And boys (15.9 percent) are almost twice as likely as girls (9.1 percent) to talk to a sports coach about nutrition.

Parents are still the preference when children discuss their weight or body size with someone. Nearly 65 percent of boys and 60.4 percent of girls say they would talk to their mom or dad about their weight or body size. Significantly more girls (57.7 percent) than boys (30.8 percent) would talk to their best friend and considerably more boys (14.7 percent) than girls (6.2 percent) would talk to their coach.

Body Satisfaction and Size
Body satisfaction
On a scale of zero to 10, with zero being “very dissatisfied” and 10 being “very satisfied,” children on average ranked themselves at 6.7 when asked ”how satisfied” they were with their bodies. Boys averaged 6.9 and girls averaged 6.4. Parents predicted that their children would give themselves a higher score than they actually did. Parents of boys predicted an average of 8.1 and parents of girls predicted an average of 7.5.

Parents rated their own body satisfaction as well. Parents of boys rated themselves at 6.2, while parents of girls rated themselves at 6.1.
      
How children describe their body
More than 33 percent of girls describe themselves “slightly overweight,” compared to 24 percent of boys. Approximately 60 percent of parents of boys and girls say their child is “about the right weight.”

Results also show that more than half of all children (52.5 percent) think they are at “about the right weight,” yet many children still feel they need to make changes to their weight.

What should a child do about his or her weight?
Significantly more girls (53.6 percent) and their parents (30.7 percent) say the girls should lose weight compared to boys. Nearly 36 percent of boys felt they should lose weight and 25 percent of parents of boys said the boys should lose weight.

However, nearly 40 percent of boys and nearly 55 percent of parents of boys said nothing needed to be done about the boys’ weight. Nearly 34 percent of girls and nearly 58 percent of parents of girls said nothing needed to be done about the girls’ weight.

How Nutritious Are the Foods Children Eat?
Parents seem to think the foods their children are eating are more nutritious in comparison to what their children say they are eating. When asked - on a scale of zero to 10, where zero means “not at all nutritious” and 10 means “very nutritious” - how children and their parents rate the foods the children eat, children averaged 6.2 while parents rated their children at 7.3. Girls rated themselves slightly lower overall than boys (girls: 6.0, boys: 6.4).


Where Kids Buy Food
Children appear to purchase food more often and from more places than parents may realize.

Vending machines, snack bars or school stores
Parents tend to underestimate the extent to which children purchase foods from vending machines or snack bars. Nearly 20 percent of children report buying food from these locations “daily” or “most days,” compared with 11.5 percent of parents.

School lunch lines
Children report buying their meals from school lunch lines less often than parents believe. Nearly 50 percent of parents believe their child buys a school lunch “daily” or “most days,” while only 36.5 percent of children reported this.

Convenience stores or street vendors
Parents underestimate how often kids buy their snacks and meals from street vendors and convenience stores “daily” or “most days.” Nearly 5 percent of parents reported their children buying snacks and meals from these locations, while nearly 9 percent of children said so.

Grocery stores
Children buy food from grocery stores more often than their parents believe. Nearly 30 percent of kids purchase food from grocery stores at least “some days” of the week, while only 16.7 percent of parents realize this as the case.

Restaurants
Children purchase food at restaurants more frequently than parents realize. About 35 percent of children report buying food from restaurants at least “some days” of the week, a fact known to just 26.5 percent of parents. However, more than 40 percent of both parents and children report that children buy their meals or snacks from restaurants “every once in a while.”

Pizza delivery
Parents are unaware of the frequency with which kids buy meals and snacks from pizza delivery services. Nearly 17 percent of children said they do so at least “some days” of the week, but only 5.7 percent of parents reported their children do this.

Factors behind Household Food Purchases
Whether it is the mother or the father, a family’s primary grocery shopper ranks “nutrition of foods” and “child’s preferences” as the most important factors in selecting what foods to buy. Less important factors include “time spent preparing meals” and “calorie content of meals.”

Nearly 97 percent of parents feel nutrition is “very” or ”somewhat” important in selecting foods to buy. More than 95 percent of parents say their child’s taste preferences are “very” or “somewhat” important factors. Nearly 75 percent of parents believe it’s “very” or “somewhat” important to buy meals their children can prepare. And more than 70 percent of parents say fat content and number of calories are “very” or “somewhat” important factors.

Physical Activity
More than 62 percent of children report participating in a team sport or group physical activity. However, girls are significantly more likely than boys to prefer sedentary, indoor activities. Slightly more than 31 percent of girls prefer indoor activities compared with more than 21 percent of boys.

Additional Noteworthy Findings and Trends
The survey results reveal interesting relationships among many issues, including child body satisfaction, self-reported nutrition levels of foods children consume and children’s belief they should lose weight.

Child body satisfaction
· As levels of participation in physical activity with a parent increase, so does children’s body satisfaction.
· As the age of the child increases, body satisfaction decreases.
· A family member telling a child to do something about his or her weight has a negative impact on the child’s body satisfaction.
· Children who report eating more nutritious foods have higher levels of body satisfaction than children whose self-reported nutrition intake was low.
 
 “Self-reported nutrition”
· As the child ages, self-reported nutrition levels decrease.
· As regular meal times decrease, self-reported nutrition decreases.
· As regular bed times decrease, self-reported nutrition decreases.
· As eating meals with a parent decreases, self-reported nutrition decreases.
 
 Children and weight loss
· As the age of the child increases, so does his or her belief that weight loss is necessary.
· A child’s mother being overweight increases the likelihood a child will feel he or she needs to lose weight.
· As engaging in physical activity with a parent increases, the probability of the child believing he or she should lose weight decreases.
· As self-reported nutrition decreases, children’s belief that they need to lose weight increases.
· A parent telling a child to do something about his or her weight increases the likelihood the child will feel the need to lose weight.

The ADAF Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey was funded by a grant made in memory of registered dietitian Allene G. Vaden, past president-elect of the American Dietetic Association.

The American Dietetic Association Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American Dietetic Association. It is a 501 (c) 3 charity devoted exclusively to nutrition and dietetics. The Foundation funds scholarships and awards, public awareness and research projects and ADA strategic initiatives. It is the largest provider of scholarships and awards in the field of dietetics. Visit ADAF at www.adaf.org.

With nearly 70,000 members, the American Dietetic Association is the nation’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. The Chicago-based ADA serves the public by promoting optimal nutrition, health and well-being. Visit ADA at www.eatright.org.

Editor’s note: Survey results are based on telephone interviews and online questionnaires with a nationally representative sample of 1,230 parents and children (615 pairs) conducted in January 2003 in partnership with Knowledge Networks. The survey has a confidence interval of plus-or-minus 4 percent in 95 out of 100 cases.
For more information about ADAF’s Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey or to interview an ADA spokesperson, contact ADA’s Public Relations Team at 800/877-1600, ext. 4802 or 4769.