Do Parents Perceive That Organized Activities Interfere with Family Meals? Associations between Parent Perceptions and Aspects of the Household Eating Environment.
BACKGROUND
Research has related child participation in organized activities to health and academic benefits; however, participation may interfere with family meals.


OBJECTIVE
Examine whether parents perceive child participation in organized activities to interfere with family meals and how perceptions are related to the household eating environment.


DESIGN
A cross-sectional analysis was completed using survey data collected in 2015-2016 as part of the Project EAT (Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults) cohort study.


PARTICIPANTS
Survey participants were originally recruited in Minneapolis-St Paul schools in 1998-1999. The analytic subsample of parents (one per household, n=389, 69% female, 31% nonwhite race, mean age=31) had one or more children involved in an organized activity. Approximately 33% of households included a child aged 2 to 5 and no older child; two thirds of households included school-aged children (6 to 18 years).


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Parents reported family meal frequency, family meal scheduling difficulties, frequency of at-home meal preparation, and their own intake of fast food, fruit, and vegetables.


STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED
Analyses compared household environment characteristics reported by parents who perceived low interference between organized activities and family meals to characteristics reported by parents who perceived moderate to high interference from at least one form of activity. Regression models included a dichotomous indicator of interference as the independent variable and were adjusted for parental and household characteristics.


RESULTS
Among parents with children at any age, moderate to high interference was associated with lower family meal frequency, greater difficulty scheduling family meals, and more fast-food intake (all P≤0.01). The perception of moderate to high interference was more common among parents who reported involvement in both sport and nonsport activities (P<0.001) and those with a school-aged child (P<0.001) vs those with only preschool-aged children.


CONCLUSIONS
Follow-up research, including qualitative studies, is needed to identify the specific aspects of child participation in organized activities (eg, scheduled time of day) that may interfere with family meals.
['Larson|Nicole|N|', 'Fulkerson|Jayne A|JA|', 'Berge|Jerica M|JM|', 'Eisenberg|Marla E|ME|', 'Neumark-Sztainer|Dianne|D|']
D000293:Adolescent D000294:Adolescent Behavior D000328:Adult D002648:Child D015331:Cohort Studies D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D004032:Diet D004435:Eating D005191:Family Characteristics D005247:Feeding Behavior D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D062407:Meals D010287:Parent-Child Relations D010290:Parents D010465:Perception D011998:Recreation D012931:Social Environment
Parenting Organized activities Family meals Sports Fast-food restaurants