Why Are Adults Giving Food Treats to Children?

• Project start date: 1 February 2017
• Project status: Completed
• Project type: Nutrition
• Discipline: Obesity
• Principal researcher/s: Dr Celine Murrin, University College Dublin
• Collaborator/s: Prof Barabara Livingstone, Ulster University, Dr John Kearney, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dr Kirsty Pourshahidi, Ulster University, Dr Robert Mooney, Amarach

Research objective

• To explore what is currently known about adults’ treat-giving behaviours for both food and non-food treats
• To provide a comprehensive overview of evidence exploring the social, environmental and individual factors that influence adults’ treat-giving behaviours 
• To estimate children’s consumption of snacks or “treat foods”
• To identify non-food alternatives to energy-dense treat foods for children, with the aim of providing parents with new ideas to replace using unhealthy snacks (sweets, chocolates, ice cream, chips, crisps and so on) for behaviour control or as rewards.

Outputs

Research report

• Title: Why do adults give food treats to children?
• Publication date: 24 October 2019
• Summary: To understand treat food behaviours among adults who care for children on the island of Ireland.
• Findings:

  Literature review 

  • The available data showed that beverages were the most popular snack choice in both the ROI and NI. 
  • A child’s age was shown to have a strong impact on snacking behaviours, with consumption of regular soft drinks and crisps increasing and consumption of low-calorie soft drinks, fruit, yoghurt and dairy desserts decreasing, with age. 

  Focus groups 

  • “Snacks” are thought of as something “healthy” while “treats” are given as a tool to modify behaviour, driven by both the adult and the child, with the type of treat is dependent on the age of the child. 
  • There was a belief that a societal shift has occurred in treat-giving due to modern consumer environment; and that in the past, treats were rare and “real treats”, whereas children today do not have the same appreciation for treats. 
  • Carers reported they tend not to use non-food treats because of the perceived time, cost and effort involved with such treats, while also believing that children would not be interested in them. 

  Survey 

  • Carers defined treats for the children as “something nice”, “deserved or earned” and “something special”. 
  • The top 3 motivations for treat food provision were to reward for good behaviour, because the child asks, and to make the child feel better.
  • Almost all participants would provide treat foods at celebrations such as birthdays or Christmas. 
  • In addition, 68% of participants had structured weekly or daily treats for children.
  • The top 3 treats given were sweets, chocolate and ice cream. 
  • Children aged between 5-12 received treat foods most often and preschool-aged children received healthier treats than older children. 
  • Treat-giving that is triggered by a child asking is more associated with overweight children and the use of treat foods as rewards was more associated with young parents.
     
• Recommendations:
  • Create an awareness that treats are “everywhere, every day” for children on the IOI. 
  • Bridge the gap between the adults’ own childhood experience of the “rarity” of treats and the regular provision of treat foods to children. 
  • Adults need support to increase their self-efficacy to manage children’s requests, and to face the challenge of the current food environment. 
  • Efforts should be made to encourage adults to be more aware of the total amount of treat foods that children receive at celebrations and special occasions. 
  • Parents and childminders should be targeted in treat food-related health interventions to enable them to prepare and provide nutritious and appropriate healthy snacks that reduce or prevent hunger.
  • Schools and childcare centres should adopt policies that promote the use of healthy food or non-food treats at celebrations and as rewards. 
  • Primary school-aged children should be prioritised in health interventions.

  You can download the report below.

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