Understanding Latino Middle School Students' Household Food Practices

Adolescent eating patterns are heavily influenced by their household and school food practices, which in turn are shaped by contextual factors such as institutional and societal conditions and social-cultural norms. This study examined how these underlying contextual factors influence the routine food practices of a Latino family with a daughter that participated in middle school-based nutrition promotion program in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through analysis of observations, interviews, and video-taping in the home, along with two school years of middle school-based ethnographic observations and interviews, a case study describing an El Salvadorian family's routine food patterns is presented. The parents' food values were shaped by their childhood experiences in El Salvador with limited food access which resulted in "wanting something better for their children." While pregnant with their middle school daughter, the expecting couple modified their family food routine based on what they learned from nutrition education classes. They maintained the healthier aspects of their cultural food heritage and adopted the healthier food options available in the U.S. The parents' intentions to inculcate healthful eating habits in their adolescent daughter intersected with and were challenged by their economic conditions, time constraints, middle school-based food options, kinship food practices, and the local availability and marketing of foods with minimal nutrition quality. This study highlights the importance of addressing the institutional (e.g., school food) and societal conditions (e.g., long working hours) that challenge family nutrition values. Implications for providing culturally-competent family-centered nutrition education are discussed.