Pascale Ezan

How do children learn eating practices? Beyond the nutritional information, the importance of social eating

Purpose – Drawing on Bronfenbrenners ecological model, this research aims to investigate the interweaving of the socialization systems within which children learn eating practices, in order to open up new paths to build prevention and care programs against childhood obesity.Design/methodology/approach – Children were interviewed using semi‐structured interviews, including projective methods. The data were analyzed by both a manual content analysis and the use of qualitative analysis software Nvivo. Nvivo enables to cross verbatim and contributes to highlight the joint effects of socialization agents in terms of childrens eating learning.Findings – The study clarifies the interrelationships between social contexts in which children learn food practices. It points out that the different social spheres may sometimes exert contradictory influences and that food learning cannot be limited to the transmission of nutritional information, but also involves emotional and social experiences.Social implications – ...

Social interactions as support for learning about food: the case of the French school cafeteria

Purpose – Research on consumer socialisation emphasises the role played by different agents as well as the influence of the context in which socialisation takes place. As part of the fight against obesity, this study on the nutritional learning of children seeks to focus specifically on social interactions in the standardised context of the school cafeteria in France. It aims to show how and through what social interactions children learn the rules related to food consumption to identify levers by which to promote healthy eating.Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted in a French school cafeteria among children aged seven to 11. A qualitative methodology was used. It included direct observations of children when selecting and eating their meals and open interviews. A systematic survey of the components of childrens food trays completes this work.Findings – This work demonstrated the existence of various types of rules and social interactions. Adults appear to be the guarantors of institutio...

The Contribution of Ethnography to the Study of Child Consumers

Childrens economic status invites researchers and practitioners to study their consumption behavior in order to propose targeted marketing actions. This paper describes the main principles of ethnography and points out the contribution of this methodology in marketing to children. It particularly underlines the importance of being immersed in the research field to overcome methodological difficulties related to childrens cognitive development. This will lead to a better understanding of childrens consumption behavior.

Le dessin comme langage de l'enfant : Contributions de la psychologie a l'enrichissement des methodologies de recherche appliquees aux enfants consommateurs

Sur la base des connaissances acquises en psychologie, ce travail a pour ambition de mener une réflexion sur les ressorts du langage graphique et la manière dont ce langage peut être mobilisé dans les recherches sur les enfants consommateurs. Il fournit un cadre méthodologique et permet de légitimer l’utilisation du langage graphique en proposant trois manières de structurer la collecte des données (le dessin cadré, le dessin orienté, le dessin libre) et deux techniques d’analyse du corpus en fonction des objectifs de la recherche.

Drawing as children’s language: Contributions of psychology to the enrichment of research methodologies applied to child consumers

On the basis of knowledge acquired in psychology, this work aims to reflect on the sources of graphic language and how this language can be mobilized in research on child consumers. It provides a methodological framework and legitimizes the use of graphic language by suggesting three ways of structuring data collection (guided drawing, oriented drawing, free drawing) and two techniques for analyzing the corpus according to the research objectives.

Role of Brands When Children Share Snacks

In her campaign to prevent childhood obesity, Michelle Obama has called on food manufacturers to produce and promote healthy foods, and to use the power of brands to teach to children to adopt healthy eating behaviors.

Enrichir la compréhension du processus de choix de l’enfant consommateur via l’étude du concept d’ensemble évoqué

Cet article examine le concept d’ensemble évoqué appliqué pour la première fois aux enfants consommateurs. Les principaux résultats confirment son existence dans leur processus de décision et mettent en évidence ses spécificités en termes de taille et de contenu. En particulier, il souligne que la taille de l’ensemble évoqué dépend de trois facteurs : la sensibilité aux marques, le niveau d’implication des enfants dans la catégorie de produits et l’usage privé ou public du produit. Quant à son contenu, l’étude suggère que les marques ont d’autant plus de chances d’être présentes dans l’ensemble évoqué qu’elles sont perçues comme prototypiques de la catégorie de produits. Ces découvertes ouvrent des pistes de réflexion importantes sur la manière dont les enfants s’approprient les marques tant au niveau fonctionnel que symbolique dans leur vie quotidienne.

Toward a deeper understanding of the choice process in child consumers through the concept of the evoked set

This article examines the important concept of the evoked set, applied for the first time to children. The main results confirm its existence in their decision process and highlight its specificities in terms of size and content. The data analysis underlines that the size of the evoked set depends on three main factors: brand sensitivity, the level of involvement, and whether the product is used in private or in public. As for its content, the study suggests that brands are more likely to be present in the evoked set if they are perceived as typical of their product category. These results open up important lines of inquiry as to how children appropriate brands both at a functional and symbolic level in their everyday life.