title: Food culture in the home environment: family meal practices and values can support healthy eating and self-regulation in young people in four European countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Overweight epidemics, including among children and adolescents, are fuelled by contemporary obesogenic environments. Recent research and theory highlight the importance of socio-cultural factors in mitigating adverse impacts of the abundance of food in high-income countries. The current study examines whether family meal culture shapes young people's eating behaviors and self-regulation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Young people aged 10-17 years were recruited through schools in four European countries: the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom. A total of 2,764 participants (mean age 13.2 years; 49.1% girls) completed a self-report questionnaire in class, providing information on healthy and unhealthy eating, joint family meals and communal meal values and use of eating-related self-regulation strategies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Path analysis found that family meal culture variables were significantly associated with young people's eating behaviors, as was self-regulation. Significant indirect effects of family meal culture were also found, through self-regulation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results confirm that family meal culture, encompassing values as well as practices, shapes young people's eating behaviors. Findings extend and link previously separate lines of enquiry by showing how food cultures can play out in the home environment. Importantly, the study contributes novel evidence suggesting that self-regulation is shaped by the home environment and mediates its influence.
authors.affiliation: The University of New South Wales, Australia; Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: John B F
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: de Wit
authors.forename: F Marijn
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Stok
authors.forename: Derek J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Smolenski
authors.forename: Denise D T
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: de Ridder
authors.forename: Emely
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Vet
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gaspar
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Lyliya
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nureeva
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luszczynska
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003469:Culture; D005192:Family Health; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D062407:Meals / Q000523:psychology*; D000068356:Self-Control; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: eating behaviors; family food environment; overweight; self-regulation; young people