Date Presented 04/04/19
Children’s mealtime occupations at home and school were analyzed. The findings provide insight to what influences mealtime occupations and the similarities and differences between those influences in each setting. This topic will advance the profession by using the six elements that influence mealtime as a starting point for approaching assessment and intervention, and highlighting the importance of using the six elements to examine differences and similarities between mealtime settings.
Primary Author and Speaker: Ashley Mason
PURPOSE: While many people recognize that meals take place in multiple settings (such as home and school), there are no studies that provide evidence of how different or similar mealtime occupations are in each individual environment. Pediatric occupational therapists create treatment interventions in one setting but are required to make their interventions strategies flexible enough to accommodate various environments where given meals occur. The purpose of this paper is to improve occupational therapy practice by highlighting what influences children’s mealtime occupations in home and school and emphasizing similarities and differences between those settings. The primary research question is the following: What shapes mealtime occupations and experiences of children at home and school? The sub-questions include: (1) How is mealtime similar in both settings? (2) How is mealtime different in both settings?
DESIGN: This paper draws on data from a larger collaborative ethnography examining the perspectives of children engaging in mealtime occupations at home and school from four child participants between the ages of 9-10 years old. Inclusion criteria were that the students attended third or fourth grade and the students and family members spoke English. I recruited the students (and families) through providing informational flyers at an evening school event at the beginning of the school year. I also sent out flyers to all third and fourth grade classrooms. Four families responded with interest and were enrolled in the study.
METHOD: My approach to data collection was grounded in a transactional approach to occupation (Dickie & Cutchin, 2012) and complimented by the cultural activity theory (Engström, 1999). The methods for gathering data included: participant observation where I ate lunch at school and dinner at home with the child participants; brief audio-recorded interviews; photo elicitation about the meaning of mealtime at home; and participant drawings/collages about mealtime at home and school. I recorded field notes following observations and transcribed the interviews. I analyzed the data using an iterative process of coding, identifying themes and then re-reading the data to refine themes and codes (Lofland, Snow, Anderson, & Lofland, 2006). I invited the participants to participate in member-checking to ensure my general interpretation was correct.
RESULTS: There were six elements that influenced mealtime at home and school: connecting with others, social norms, physical space, time, food, and mealtime actions. Additionally, the similarities emphasized connecting with others while eating and the expectation of following particular social norms as important during lunch and dinner. The differences between settings included interacting with different groups of people (peers versus family), amount of time allotted for meals, physical space, and types of food.
CONCLUSION: This suggests that when examining mealtime occupations, both settings have six elements of mealtime in common. However, the children’s perception of mealtime in each environment emphasized differences amongst each of the elements and noted few similarities. Implications for practitioners include noting that mealtime requires a more setting-specific approach that considers how the elements of mealtime influence children in different settings. This is compared to traditional mealtime interventions developed for flexibility and utility across settings.
IMPACT STATEMENT: This proposal is vital because it emphasizes the necessity of examining differences and similarities that influence mealtime in various settings. Also, it underscores using the six elements of mealtime as a starting point for children’s mealtime occupation assessment and intervention.
References
Cutchin, M. P., & Dicke, V. A. (2012). Transactionalism: Occupational science and the pragmatic attitude. In G. Whiteford & C. Hocking (Eds.), Occupational science: Society, inclusion, participation (pp. 23-37). Blackwell Publishing.
Engeström, Y. (1999). Innovative learning in work teams: Analyzing cycles of knowledge creation in practice. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen & R.-L. Punamaki (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory (pp. 377-406). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lofland, J., Snow, D., Anderson, L., & Lofland, L. H. (2006). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis. (4th Ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson.
