Take a S-EAT: Social Eating project
How do parents perceive family meals with their infants and toddlers? How do family meals influence child development? How can we support parents in creating family meals that support their children’s socio-emotional development and learning?
Aim
The objectives of this PhD project are to:
- review the existing knowledge on eating situations as a context for the development of infants and toddlers
- explore the family meal as a developmental and social context for young children
- examine how parent-child interactions during mealtimes are associated with children’s short and long-term socio-emotional development.
Methods
The first part of the project is a scoping review that aims to identify and synthesize the literature that examines family meals with parents and children aged 0-3 years. The second part is an explorative study of parents’ perception of having meals with their infants and toddlers, where both quantitative and qualitative measures are applied. Parental feeding practices will be assessed using the Feeding Practices and Structure Questionnaire-28. Parents’ perception of the family meal is examined using qualitative and quantitative questions.
Contribution
The project is among the first studies that examine the family mealtime with infants and toddlers as a context of socialization and development. The results of the study will contribute with insights on how families experience the family mealtime, which may support the development of interventions aim to support parents in creating eating situations that facilitate positive child development as well as preventing the development disturbed eating habits in children.
About the project
Title: Take a S-EAT: Social Eating project - Learning and Social Development at the Dining Table.
Project period: 2022 - 2026.
PhD student: Julie Elisabeth Warberg Mohr, cand.psych.
Supervisor: Johanne Smith-Nielsen.
Funding
The project is funded by Stokke
