Author(s): Samantha Ramsay
Abstract
Parents and children are influenced by food advertisements, which can impact children’s healthy weight. The
purpose of the study was to identify the type and frequency of food images in parenting magazines. Content analysis
of twelve issues from each of three parenting magazines (36) for 2010 was conducted by two researchers. The
inter-rater reliability was 0.70 or above for the categories: food items, restaurants, infant feeding, feeding equipment,
and supplements. From the 2445 food related images, breads and grains appeared most frequently (476), followed
by the fats, oils, and sweets category (334). Few breastfeeding images (9) appeared compared to bottle (29) or
formula (50) feeding images. Supplement images occurred more frequently than drink, condiment, restaurant, and
infant feeding images. Knowledge of the type and frequency of food related images in magazines can be used by
health professionals to provide education and information to parents that will address obesigenic behaviors and
environments.
