posted on 2013-07-31, 13:18authored byNatalie Pearson
The increasing evidence of associations between inactivity and poor diets in young
people and both immediate and long term health implications is of public health
concern. There is a need to further understanding of young people's health behaviours,
to facilitate the development of behaviour change strategies promoting healthy
behaviours. This thesis, provides seven studies focusing on the family environment and
the influences that the family and parents have on young people's physical activity and
dietary behaviours. Chapter 2.1 describes a systematic review of family correlates of
fruit and vegetable consumption in children and adolescents. Chapter 2.2 describes a
systematic review of family correlates of breakfast consumption among children and
adolescents. Systematic reviews are an essential component of evidence-based practice,
and both reviews were conducted to examine the state of the current literature
examining family environmental influences on aspects of young people's dietary
behaviours. In the context of this thesis, these systematic reviews are of primary
importance as they were instrumental in shaping and informing the direction of the
research described in later chapters. Chapter 3 broadens the investigation of young
people's health behaviours and describes two cross-sectional studies examining both
physical activity and dietary behaviours. Chapter 3.1 describes a study examining
patterns of adolescent physical activity and dietary behaviours. This study describes
how adolescents are at risk of not meeting the recommendations for multiple health
behaviours (e.g. physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and breakfast
consumption). Chapter 3.2 was designed to fill several gaps in the literature about the
correlates of multiple health behaviours and also to gain a greater insight into the
transferability of parental behaviours to different health behaviours in children. Chapter
3.2 describes a study examining family influences on young peoples fruit and vegetable
consumption and physical activity, and on combinations of these behaviours (e.g. high
physical activity and low fruit and vegetable consumption). Chapter 4.1 was designed
to fill gaps in the literature by examining the association between family circumstance
(parental marital status, maternal education, maternal employment status, number of
brothers and number of sisters) and adolescent dietary behaviour, and 2-year change in
dietary behaviour. Chapter 4.2 was designed to fill gaps in the literature by examining
the relationship between parenting styles, family structure and aspects of adolescent
dietary behaviour. Together, the six studies described above established a rationale and
informed the content of the pilot family-based intervention described in Chapter 5. This
thesis found that particular aspects of the family environment and particular attributes of
parenting were associated with positive physical activity and dietary behaviours of
young people. Such findings add considerably to the existing literature and are
important as they suggest that even as young people age, the family environment and
the emotional context within which parent-child interactions occur are vital for positive
health behaviours. Targeting such facets of the family and parenting holds great
potential for behaviour change strategies.