Objective: To (i) explore the factors influencing family out-of-home (OH) eating events and (ii) identify possible opportunities for food businesses to support families in making healthier OH choices.
Design: Focus group discussions were conducted with parents (six to eight participants per group) and friendship pair discussions (informal interviews with two children who are friends) were conducted with children (5-12 years) throughout the island of Ireland. Both discussions were audio-recorded and analysed using a thematic content analysis.
Setting: Eight focus groups and sixteen friendship pairs were conducted in Northern Ireland and sixteen focus groups and thirty-two friendship pairs were conducted in the Republic of Ireland.
Subjects: Purposive sampling was used to recruit a sample of non-related parents and children that represented equal numbers of gender, age, socio-economic status and demographic backgrounds.
Results: The main, overarching theme was that families perceived OH eating to be a treat, while health was not currently a key priority for many parents and children. Children were reported to have most responsibility for their own food choice decisions in this environment, with taste and food neophobia having the greatest influences. Parents believed that if food businesses could meet parent and child priorities in addition to health influences, e.g. change cooking methods, and increase flexibility, then families would be more likely to patronise these establishments.
Conclusions: The entire family OH eating experience needs to be considered when developing public health interventions and this research has highlighted key opportunities that caterers could employ to support healthier family OH food choices.
Keywords: Catering sector; Children; Eating out of home; Family; Food choice; Obesity.