The role of the dietary gatekeeper’s food literacy in the home environment
Creators: name: WIJAYARATNE, Sanjeewa
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 350699
subject: Marketing not elsewhere classified

description: Overweight and obesity are significant health and social problems that now affect much of the developed world. The home environment has been identified as a critical setting that can contribute to obesity as it is influential in the development of dietary patterns and eating preferences. In this environment, the dietary gatekeeper is the person mainly responsible for food purchases and the preparation of meals and therefore plays a key role in the family’s food consumption. To facilitate healthy eating in the home environment, it is important for the dietary gatekeeper to possess the necessary food skills and knowledge.

The concept of food literacy has emerged as a broader perspective of critical food capabilities beyond just nutritional knowledge or cooking skills. Food literacy encompasses skills and knowledge related to the planning, preparation, selection and eating of food in a way that facilitates protective benefits that enable consumers to make informed nutritional choices and contribute to improved health (Slater et al., 2018, Truman et al., 2017, Vidgen, 2016, Vidgen and Gallegos, 2014). This wider set of skills are essential to navigate the complexity of the modern foodscape to ensure health and wellbeing.

However, while research on food literacy is emerging, there are limited insights into the role of the dietary gatekeeper’s food literacy in the home environment, including how food literacy is developed within the family. Therefore, this thesis investigates how the dietary gatekeeper’s food literacy influences healthy dietary outcomes in the home environment and how they foster food literacy within the family, especially in children. Specifically, this thesis addresses the following research questions: a) How does food literacy related skills, knowledge and confidence influence the dietary gatekeeper’s motivations to engage in healthy dietary behaviour?; b) How does the dietary gatekeeper’s food literacy related skills and knowledge help them overcome and manage barriers to healthy eating?; c) How does the dietary gatekeeper’s food literacy
related skills and knowledge influence the food literacy of other household members especially children?; d) Are there different approaches used by the dietary gatekeeper to share and develop food literacy related skills and knowledge in children of different age groups?

Research was undertaken in three stages. First, a quantitative analysis of a preexisting dataset of 756 Australian dietary gatekeepers was carried out to determine how food literacy related skills and knowledge impacts healthy dietary behaviour and barriers to healthy eating in the home environment. The findings suggest that food literacy related skills and knowledge have a positive influence on the dietary gatekeeper’s satisfaction with the healthiness of family diet while also reducing the influence of barriers to healthy eating in the home environment.

The second stage involved 17 face-to-face in-depth interviews to further explore the dietary gatekeeper’s food literacy to provide a deeper understanding of the different aspects of food literacy used to overcome barriers to healthy eating in the home environment. This study also explored how the dietary gatekeeper shared their food literacy related skills and knowledge with family members, especially children. The findings reveal time pressure and fussy eating as the most significant barriers to healthy eating in the home environment. To manage these barriers, four strategies were identified that leveraged the dietary gatekeepers’ food literacy: breaking up meal tasks; customising meals for family tastes; camouflaging healthy ingredients; and facilitating food choice autonomy. These strategies incorporated inter-related food literacy skills and knowledge associated with planning, preparation, selection, and eating. The findings also demonstrate that the dietary gatekeeper employs modeling, involvement and conversation approaches to share food literacy skills and knowledge with children. Finally, the main challenges to the transfer of food literacy to children,
particularly young children were identified as time pressure, safety concerns, lack of interest from children and conflict between siblings.

In the final stage of this research, building on the insights gained from the qualitative study, a cross-sectional survey of 300 dietary gatekeepers was utilised to examine how nutritional knowledge and cooking capability influences the sharing of food literacy related skills and knowledge with different age groups of children. A two-step cluster analysis identified two gatekeeper groups: lower and higher confidence based on cooking confidence, food preparation skills and nutrition knowledge. For both gatekeeper groups, modeling was most frequently used to share food literacy skills and knowledge to all age groups of children, but more so for children in the 5-8 age range. Interestingly, gatekeepers with higher confidence were also more likely to employ conversation and involvement approaches and to share a greater range of food
literacy skills, particularly with older children in the 9-12 and 13-16 age groups. 

This thesis provides a number of contributions in relation to food literacy in the home environment. Stage 1 of the research extends the understanding of the dietary gatekeeper’s food literacy by demonstrating its role in positively influencing the satisfaction with the healthiness of the family diet, while also reducing the influence of barriers to healthy eating in the home environment. To build on this contribution, a qualitative approach was undertaken in the second stage of the research to further explore the specific ways in which the dietary gatekeeper uses different aspects of food literacy to manage barriers to healthy eating in the home environment.

Stage 2 findings extend the understanding of the inter-related nature of the food literacy concept by identifying four practices that incorporate skills and knowledge related to planning, preparation, selection and eating together to manage time pressure and children’s fussy eating to provide healthy family meals. Further, this study also provided additional insights on how the dietary gatekeeper shares their food literacy skills and knowledge with young children using strategies related to modeling, involvement and conversation as well as the challenges experienced in the intergenerational transfer of food literacy.

Lastly, Stage 3 of the research extends the understanding on how food literacy is fostered in the family by examining the differences in the modes of transmission relating to modeling, involvement and conversation utilised by the dietary gatekeeper to share various food literacy skills and knowledge with different age groups of children in the home environment.

The findings from this thesis have implications for social marketing agencies, public health professionals, education organisations and the food industry that can be used to facilitate healthy dietary outcomes in families and reduce the incidence of obesity. Extending the knowledge of how food literacy is developed in the family environment will inform interventions to help foster the transmission of appropriate food knowledge, skills and capabilities in the home environment.