Storybooks About Healthy Beverage Consumption: Effects in an Online Randomized Experiment With Parents

Parents spend substantial time reading to their children, making storybooks a promising but understudied avenue for motivating parents to serve their children healthier beverages. This study examines parents' reactions to messages promoting healthy beverage consumption embedded in a children's storybook.

In 2020, a total of 2,164 demographically diverse parents of children aged 6 months to 5 years participated in an online survey. Participants were randomized to view control messages (school readiness) or 1 of 3 beverage message topics (sugary drink discouragement, water encouragement, or combined discouragement and encouragement) presented as pages from the storybook Potter the Otter. Survey items assessed parents' reactions to the messages and their perceptions, beliefs, and intentions regarding sugary drinks and water. Data were analyzed in 2021.

Compared with control messages, exposure to the beverage messages led to higher discouragement from serving children sugary drinks and higher encouragement to serve children more water (p<0.001). The beverage messages also elicited more thinking about beverages' health impacts and led to stronger perceptions that sugary drinks are unhealthy (p<0.001). Moreover, the beverage messages led to higher intentions to limit serving children sugary drinks and higher intentions to serve children more water (p≤0.02). Parents' reactions to the beverage messages did not differ by most demographic characteristics. Few differences in outcomes were observed among the 3 beverage message topics.

Embedding beverage messages in storybooks is a promising, scalable strategy for motivating parents from diverse backgrounds to serve children more water and fewer sugary drinks.