Amy L. Fielden et al. Of particular importance was the finding that children feel that they often receive mixed and contradicting messages. This is of great relevance when considering the development of policies and strategies that can be more effective. More over this backs up the findings of Dorey and McCool (2009) who conclude that nutritional messages evident in health promotion and advertising were often per- ceived by child audiences to be ambiguous. The authors warn that these contradictory messages could potentially serve to weaken the trustworthi- ness viewers have in health promotion initiatives. This really points to a key area in which health professionals can target efforts to tackle obesity. Clarity and consistency in healthy messages and recommendations are central to helping people take on board and act on the information they receive. Contradiction allows room for people to question the advice given and when effort is required to make a change in behaviour that change is less likely to be made if there is reason to doubt the accuracy of information. Furthermore, coherent messages need to consider person specific factors that may inhibit behaviour change; when individuals are encouraged to behave in a certain way but the constraints of day- to-day life lead to another, the results are confusion and hostility to the initial message (Owens & Driffill, 2008). Procedural issues The main methodological issue arising was partici- pants from Reception struggled to engage fully in conversation, and the sessions followed a structure more a kin to an interview (i.e., question and answer). It was difficult to encourage responses that were longer than a few words; often one word responses were given. There is the potential to gain some very useful information from children in this age group; however, it can be a long and time- consuming process to elicit enough information to make the analysis process worthwhile. The length of the sessions also must be kept relatively short because attention spans are not long lasting; this was a finding similar to that of Miller (2000). The replica food items selected to help provide structure to the focus groups were useful and did provide a catalyst for discussion; however, for very young children (i.e., those in Reception) they resemble toys too closely, this then leads to them becoming more of a distraction, hindering the discussion. The use of the picture cards and pens and paper as suggested by Backett and Alexander (1991) pro- vided a more a suitable means of structuring focus groups for young children. There were at times issues with certain members of the groups making themselves heard more than others, thus the researcher had to encourage those happier to sit back and let others take the lead (Kirk, 2007). However, through a little encouragement all participants appeared comfortable talking with each other and participated equally, a result of the careful selection process. It also appeared to be beneficial speaking to boys and girls separately, with the boys often more excitable in their discussion style in comparison to the girls. It also facilitated the identification of some important issues, for example, the Year 6 boys identified eating behaviours present in the Year 6 girls that the girls themselves did not discuss. Implications for the future The Foresight Report (Department of Innovation Universities and Skills, 2007), in tackling obesity, points out that current policies are failing because they do not provide the depth and range of inter- ventions needed. This present study has determined that central to children’s understandings of the causes and consequences of obesity are the concepts of knowledge, the opportunity to apply this knowl- edge to their own lives, and the existence of role models to set an example. There exist certain myths and misconceptions that need to be addressed and children need to believe they can trust the health messages they receive because they are aware some messages are misleading or forever changing. The key to this issue seems to be children learn by example, they can have all the knowledge in the world provided to them through an institution such as a school but this information needs to be supported by life at home. This provides evidence that campaigns need to target parents to tackle childhood obesity; this is an issue that policy makers are already aware of ( National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2006). However, this means health messages delivered to the general public need to be clearer and avoid ambiguity. There needs to be careful considerations of the context in which health messages are received, taking into account the understandings of the target population (Hesketh et al., 2005). There were some issues raised in the focus group that were beyond the scope of this particular study. There was a representation of different ethnic minorities in the groups, and slight differences in the understandings of these different groups were identified. Further research should investigate the understandings of different minority groups to see if ethnicity influences or results in divergent concepts. Future study also needs to look at strategies that 12 (page number not for citation purpose) Citation: Int J Qualitative Stud Health Well-being 2011; 6: 7170 - DOI: 10.3402/qhw.v6i3.7170