Parental Use of Reward and Punishment on Children’s Food Choices, Dietary Diversity and Nutritional Status in Kiambu County, Kenya
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Date
2024-06
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Determinants of food choices are many and include socio-cultural, socio-economic and
environmental conditioning. The Kenyan population is made up of 47,564, 296 people of
whom 1.4 % are the school going children aged 6-years- old in Juja Sub-County. Parental
use of reward and punishment is a key to reinforcement or deterrence of food choices
among children an aspect that affects nutritional status throughout. The purpose of this
study was to establish the relationship between parental use of reward and punishment,
on 6-year-old children and food choices, dietary diversity and nutritional status in
Kiambu County, Kenya. A cross-sectional analytical research design was adopted on 384
parent-child pairs who were disproportionately sampled in Juja sub-county. A researcher
administered questionnaire was used to collect data on demographics and socio-economic
characteristics of the parents and children, parental use of reward and punishment on the
study population, food choices and dietary diversity of the study children. Anthropometry
was used to establish nutritional status of the study children. SРSS software version 26.0
and excel were used to analyze the data after coding. Anthropometric data was analyzed
using WHO Anthro-Plus Survey Analyzer and compared to reference cut-off points for
BMI-for-age (BAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ) and height-for-age (HAZ) Scores for the
target age. Pearson’s correlation (r) was used to establish association of ratio data where a
value of p< 0.05 or lower was significant and chi square (x2
) used to establish association
of categorical variables where the higher the score, the more likely the association
between the variables. The boys were 48.0% while the girls were 52.0% with a mean age
of 6.4± 0.1. Almost a half of the index children (45.1%) were born first. Mean household
size was 5.0± 1.66 with maternal mean age at 34± 4.9 years and that of the fathers at 39±
4.8 years. Majority of the mothers (73.0%) and fathers (76.1%) had tertiary level of
education with more fathers than mothers in the formal sector of employment and with a
higher income. All (100%) of the children reported being rewarded by receiving
incentives like praise words and special permissions (60.1%), favorite snacks (6.3%) and
while majority of them (92.0%) reported being punished in multiple ways by the mothers
when they refused to feed while a third of the fathers (61.0%) reported praising and
gifting the study child to feed. Prevalence of stunting (6.9%), underweight (7.1%),
wasting (7.2%), overweight (16.4%) and obesity (11.7%) was observed in the study
population. A positive strong significant relationship (P≤0.05, x
2
=5.2) between age of the
mothers and punishment was noted and also between married mothers and shouting
threats, grounding, inflicting pain & withdrawal of privileges (P≤0.05, x
2
=9.6). More
parents with tertiary education (74.6%) and higher incomes (40.5%) gifted and gave
special permissions. Gift, praise & special permissions had a stronger positive
relationship to food choices (P≤0.06, x
2
=4.33) and nutritional status (P≤0.04, x
2
=5.9).
Food choices had a strong positive relationship to nutritional status (P≤0.05) and so did
dietary diversity (P≤0.6). Sensitization of parents on the use of parental reward and
punishment on children’s food choice and nutritional status came out as an area of
interest. The findings of the study will contribute to the achievement of the third
sustainable development goal.
Description
A Research Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Science in Food, Nutrition and Dietetics in the School of Health Sciences, Kenyatta University June, 2024