Family influences on children's soft drink and juice intakes

With the recently published paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, the evidence that sugary drinks contribute to unnecessary weight gain in children and adolescents is becoming more and more convincing.
The aim of a study we just published in e-pub in the scientific journal Appetite was to investigate associations of family-related factors with children's fruit drink/juice and soft drink consumption. We used the ENERGY study data from >7000 11 year old children and one of their parents from eight countries across Europe. We analyzed if the children's self-reported fruit drink/juice and soft drink intake and a range of family environment and parenting factors were associated. We looked at such factors as parental modeling (i.e. parents' own juice and soft drink intakes), availability of juice and soft drinks at home, whether parents monitored their children's intakes, their self-efficacy, parents' permissiveness, negotiations regarding intakes, communicating health beliefs, et cetera. Three of the 11 family-related factors considered (modeling, availability, and family consumption) were positively associated with children's fruit drink/juice and soft drink intake. Thus, children's intakes were on average higher when their parents had high intakes themselves, when drinks were readily available at home, and when family consumption was higher. Additionally, three other factors (permissiveness, monitoring, and self-efficacy) were solely associated with soft drink intake, i.e. children of parents who were more permissive regarding soft drinks, and who did not monitor children's intakes, and with lower self-efficacy drank more soft drinks. These results contribute to the body of evidence regarding the importance of the home environment for children's soft drink intakes. Most interventions aiming at contributing to the promotion of health behaviors in school-aged children are school-based and fail to involve the family; our study once more points to the importance of family, and especially parent, involvement.