title: Parents' food choice motives and their associations with children's food preferences.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective was to investigate parents' motives for selecting foods for their children and the associations between these motives and children's food preferences.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey. A modified version of the Food Choice Questionnaire was used to assess parents' food choice motives. Parents also reported children's liking/disliking of 176 food and beverage items on 5-point Likert scales. Patterns of food choice motives were examined with exploratory principal component analysis. Associations between motives and children's food preferences were assessed with linear regression while one-way and two-way ANOVA were used to test for sociodemographic differences.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two Australian cities.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parents (n 371) of 2-5-year-old children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Health, nutrition and taste were key motivators for parents, whereas price, political concerns and advertising were among the motives considered least important. The more parents' food choice for their children was driven by what their children wanted, the less children liked vegetables (β =-0·27, P<0·01), fruit (β=-0·19, P<0·01) and cereals (β=-0·28, P<0·01) and the higher the number of untried foods (r=0·17, P<0·01). The reverse was found for parents' focus on natural/ethical motives (vegetables β=0·17, P<0·01; fruit β=0·17, P<0·01; cereals β=0·14, P=0·01). Health and nutrition motives bordered on statistical significance as predictors of children's fruit and vegetable preferences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although parents appear well intentioned in their motives for selecting children's foods, there are gaps to be addressed in the nature of such motives (e.g. selecting foods in line with the child's desires) or the translation of health motives into healthy food choices.
authors.affiliation: 1Faculty of Health,University of Technology,Sydney,Level 7,235 Jones Street,Ultimo NSW 2007 (PO Box 123),Australia.
authors.forename: Catherine G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: 2School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences,Deakin University,Melbourne,Australia.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Worsley
authors.affiliation: 2School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences,Deakin University,Melbourne,Australia.
authors.forename: Djin G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Liem
mesh_terms: D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D009753:Nutritive Value; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010349:Patient Compliance; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013021:South Australia; D013649:Taste; D014739:Victoria
keywords: Parents