Abstract
Objective: To introduce educational material that was developed based on a social cognitive theory of picky eating in preschool children, and to report outcomes from process evaluation of the material in practice.
Methods: We conducted a panel theater program for parents and their preschool children from three kindergartens and two child care centers in Tokyo from May to July 2011. The theme of the panel theater was “Let's tackle the disliked foods!” On the first stage, parents and children watched a panel theater-style presentation. On the second stage, the parents were then informed about the social cognitive theory on which the program was based. After the program, parents answered self-administered questionnaires for process evaluation.
Results: One hundred and thirty-five parents participated in the program. Through the process evaluation questionnaires, most parents characterized the program as “interesting (97.0%)” and/or “comprehensible (96.3%).” In the free description portion of the questionnaire, comments from parents of kindergarteners reflected a sense of decreasing pressure regarding the picky eating behaviors of their children and a willingness to use modeling which was one of the behavioral strategies recommended in the program. On the other hand, parents of children from the child care centers commented on the difficulty of maintaining their children's attention for the duration of the program given that their children generally only were around 2 years of age.
Conclusion: The process evaluation for the educational material in practice showed a generally positive reception. In addition, comments from parents of kindergartners frequently described a sense of the decreasing pressure regarding their children's picky eating behaviors. These results suggest that the panel theater might be usefully applied as an educational approach to address picky eating in preschool children.
