Food marketing to young children on the island of Ireland: Parents' views, attitudes and practices and implications for early years policy.

Tatlow-Golden, Mimi; Hennessy, Eilis; Hollywood, Lynsey and Dean, Moira (2015). Food marketing to young children on the island of Ireland: Parents' views, attitudes and practices and implications for early years policy. Children's Research Digest: Researching Early Childhood, 2(2) pp. 15–22.

Abstract

Food advertising significantly (and independently) affects children’s food preferences and consumption, with long- term effects on health (Cairns et al., 2013), and is therefore regulated across the island of Ireland. However, restrictions on unhealthy food advertising apply only during children’s TV programming, yet young children watch substantial amounts of TV at other times. Thus they continue to see at least 1000 unhealthy food ads annually in the Republic of Ireland and 700 in Northern Ireland (Tatlow-Golden, 2014). Parental mediation of advertising – through explanation and/ or restriction – can modify children’s food preferences and choices (Buijzen, 2009). However, parents are reported to rarely engage in such activities, focusing more on content appropriateness than advertising (Ofcom, 2014). To design effective policy for public education and early years settings in Ireland, it is essential to identify the views and practices of parents in Ireland.

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