How to bridge the intention-behavior gap in food parenting: Automatic constructs and underlying techniques.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Science
• Nutrition Psychology
• Public Health

Background:

• Parents often intend to create healthy food environments but face challenges in consistent behavior.
• A gap exists between parents' stated intentions and their actual food parenting practices.
• Automatic processes are hypothesized to play a significant role in this intention-behavior gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a conceptual framework explaining intention-behavior discordance in food parenting.
• To highlight the roles of habits and volitional regulation in food parenting.
• To discuss impulse-focused techniques for improving food parenting behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Literature review on intention-behavior gap in health behaviors.
• Development of a dual-process conceptual framework for food parenting.
• Discussion of habit formation and volitional regulation constructs.

Main Results:

• Automatic processes, specifically habits and volitional regulation, mediate the intention-behavior gap in food parenting.
• Techniques like nudging, inhibitory control training, implementation intentions, and mental contrasting show potential.
• These techniques can directly or indirectly influence food parenting habits.

Conclusions:

• A dual-process model offers insights into why parents may not always act on their healthy eating intentions.
• Understanding automatic processes is crucial for developing effective food parenting interventions.
• Further research on habit-focused and volitional strategies is recommended to promote healthier food parenting.