Children ’ s descriptions of their involvement within everyday food practices

.


Background
The way in which children interact with food in their everyday lives has a profound impact on their health and wellbeing (United Nations Children 's Fund, 2018).Consequently these food practices are the focus of research, strategy and policy development that seek to understand and manage these interactions (Shorey & Chan, 2020).However, as children have traditionally been constructed as unreliable, immature, incapable and passive research subjects (James & Prout, 2015), the nature and impact of their everyday food interactions are typically described from the viewpoints of adult proxies such as parents, teachers or researchers (Patrick & Nicklas, 2005;Scaglioni et al., 2018).Although there has a been a long history of researchers and practitioners arguing for more emphasis on the voice of children particularly grounded in the New Sociology of Childhood (James et al., 1998;James & Prout, 2015;Jenks, 2005) increased research in this area has more recently been aided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 1989).Each seeks to contradict this traditional construction instead positioning children as competent, capable and active subjects able to inform and deliberate on their own food worlds (James & Prout, 2015).
By embracing children as agentic, an exponential growth of foodbased literature has sought to privilege children's voices (Wright-Pedersen et al., 2023).Although health-related research, including that encompassing food and nutrition, has been conducted to lesser extent with younger children compared to adolescents and young adults (Wilson et al., 2020), it has been shown that children aged five to twelve are able to actively consent to, and participate in, qualitative food-related research (Wright-Pedersen et al., 2023).Food-related research conducted with this age group has largely centred on children's perspectives of factors influencing their food consumption, particularly in relation to more nutritious food intake.Investigations span topics such as food preferences, attitudes and behaviours (for example, Ogden & Roy-Stanley, 2020), knowledge of healthy foods (for example, Velardo & Drummond, 2018), the influence of family and peers (for example, Alm et al., 2015;Mason, 2021;O'Donohoe et al., 2021), food environments (for example, Briggs & Lake, 2011;Pearce et al., 2009), food marketing practices (for example, Rose et al., 2012), and influences across socio-ecological domains (for example, Chan et al., 2022).
Children's perspectives of food-related activities (or practices) beyond consumption have been explored to a lesser extent, with some literature around children's engagement with cooking (for example, Martin Romero & Francis, 2020;Olfert et al., 2019) and food shopping (for example, Castro et al., 2021;Monalisa et al., 2023;Sherman et al., 2015).In most cases, however, children's perspectives of these food practices have tended to be investigated as siloed events within specific settings, such as homes (Martin Romero & Francis, 2020), schools (Maiz et al., 2021), supermarkets (Castro et al., 2021) or corner stores (Sherman et al., 2015).Therefore understanding the food practices beyond consumption that children broadly engage in across their everyday lives, and the extent of their involvement within these is unknown.Understanding the extent of children's involvement within various food-related activities may also prove useful in informing how best to influence future research, strategies and policy.Consequently, this research aimed to garner children's (aged 8-12 years old) descriptions of and involvement in their everyday food practices.This uppermiddle childhood age range was chosen as it presents as a unique period of social transition of increasing independence from parents compared to younger ages, but prior to adolescence where peer socialisation is increasingly emphasised, and hence these influences upon children's food practice involvement (Lerner et al., 2013).

Theoretical framing
This study employed social practice theory to investigate the nature and extent of children's involvement in their everyday food worlds.From a practice theoretical perspective, food practices may include activities such as food preparation, consumption or food shopping (Castelo et al., 2021).In social practice theory, practices are considered the locus of examination, rather than individuals (i.e., behaviours, choices) or structures (i.e., settings, macro-systems) (Blue et al., 2016;Halkier & Holm, 2021;Olstad & Kirkpatrick, 2021).Instead, individuals are viewed as 'practitioners' who collectively perform practices (Hargreaves, 2011;Reckwitz, 2002;Shove et al., 2012).

Study design and setting
The data presented in this paper were part of a broader study into children's perspectives of their food practices.This study was based in Brisbane, located in the Australian state of Queensland and targeted children of upper-primary school age.Within Australia, it is compulsory for children to have commenced primary school by the age of six years where most children begin between four and a half to five and a half years and continue until the age of eleven or twelve years of age.Children spend approximately 6 h a day at school, with two or three structured meal breaks occurring throughout the day for a total time between one to one and half hours.The large majority of Australian schools within metropolitan areas do not provide school meals, instead children either bring food packed in containers (known as lunchboxes) from home or purchased at a school canteen (known as a tuckshop in Queensland) where available.Throughout this paper, brands unique to the Australian context quoted by children have been replaced with generic terms, except in the case where they relate to children's drawings or photographs that have been inserted into the paper."Dinner" in the Australian context typically refers to the evening meal.
A qualitative participatory ethnographic approach grounded in social constructionism was undertaken.Data were collected via creative draw-and-tell interviews and photovoice methods.Data were collected from children between September 2022 and January 2023.This multimethod approach allowed for triangulation and prolonged engagement with the intention of establishing increased trust with child participants, generating richer data, and observing multiple contexts to ultimately improve credibility, dependability and confirmability of research outcomes (Krefting, 1991;Shenton, 2004).Aligning with participatory research methodologies, drawings created by children in the first stage guided both children and researchers for subsequent research components, such as the types of food practices that might be captured in photos as well as interview prompts.Drawings were seen as a general overview of children's food practices across their everyday lives and Photovoice provided more specific insights with the additional benefit of children having greater control over the data generated (Shaw, 2021;Wang & Burris, 1997).
To inform the design and implementation of this study, three children known to the researcher (with parental and child consent and assent) piloted the creative interview consent and study procedures, that were then used to guide subsequent methodology.This study was conducted in accordance with ethical guidelines and was approved by the Queensland University of Technology Human Research Ethics Committee (QUT/UHREC/5274).

Recruitment
Families with children aged eight to 12 years old residing within the greater Brisbane area were recruited via paid social media advertising (Meta platform).As interest in the study exceeded expectations, children and families were purposively sampled from the pool of registered expressions of interest to achieve maximum diversity across age, sex and socio-economic demographics.Families who had registered interest but not invited to participate were thanked and given the opportunity to be contacted in the future if any other research activities were available.Sampling aimed to achieve diversity across socioeconomic status and sex as existing literature indicates that food practices may vary among children as a result of these characteristics (Mihrshahi et al., 2019).Socioeconomic status was broadly determined by categorising participant's residential postcode to the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2018).The IRSD is determined from national census survey economic and social data.Where a low IRSD score (i.e., quintile 1) is considered relatively more disadvantaged than a high score (i.e., quintile 5) (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2018).Age was based upon date of birth and sex was self-reported.
Eligible caregivers and their children who expressed interest, were contacted via telephone within two weeks of their initial contact with more information.Those who confirmed interest were booked into an interview timeslot at a time and place suitable for the family.Caregivers returned adult consent forms via email or at the first interview.Children's informed consent for the creative interviews was obtained at the first interview by showing them a short, animated study information video.Children were then asked consent confirming questions (for example, 'Why are you being asked to participate?') and given an opportunity to ask questions before being asked to provide verbal (if via videoconferencing software) or written consent.
Children were given opportunities to assent, dissent, or withdraw at the commencement of each research stage as well as during the research itself (Graham et al., 2013).Additionally, 'stop signs' for the researcher to cease research activities were co-determined and practiced with children prior to each study component (for example, stopping and handing back the audio-recording device) (Kirk, 2007).
S. Wright-Pedersen et al.

Data collection
Forty-two children (28 families) participated in creative interviews (Fig. 1).In families where more than one child participated, siblings participated in paired-interviews or focus group discussions.Most interviews were conducted at children's homes (n = 19 families), with the remaining conducted at local public facilities (i.e., libraries (n = 3), university campuses (n = 3)), or using online video conferencing software (n = 3, https://zoom.us/).These interviews began by asking children to draw places that they would usually eat food, followed by where they would make and get food from (see interview guide supplementary file 1).As children drew pictures, the researcher asked questions about the drawing prompted by the semi-structured interview guide, such as "who is with you when you are doing this [food practice]?".
At the end of the creative interview, 36 children from 23 families were offered to participate in Photovoice (Fig. 1).Five families (six children) were not offered to continue as they had either participated in creative interviews via videoconferencing or children were identified as less engaged in the creative interviews.Twenty-one children from 16 families agreed to proceed.These children and their caregivers were invited to a Photovoice training and informed consent procedure either in-person (4 children, 3 families) or online (17 children, 13 families, https://zoom.us/).Children were offered to use their own device or a tablet device provided by the research team and instructed to take photos of food-related activities that they perceived as important to them over a two-week period.The research team checked in with caregivers after one week via text message.During this period, one child/family withdrew for unknown reasons.After two weeks, children and their caregivers were asked to review photo content to ensure no sensitive data were collected before sending to researchers.
Once photos were received, a Photovoice interview was arranged with children via their caregivers.These were conducted in homes (n = 17 children, 12 families), local libraries (n = 2 children/families) or online (n = 1 child/family, https://zoom.us/)(Fig. 1).At the Photovoice interviews, child assent was gained and continually assessed.The researcher prompted children to choose which photos they wished to talk about before commencing questioning (see supplementary file 2 for the semi-structured interview guide).Following the interview, children and their caregivers were given the option of how their photos may be used (i.e., not at all, with/without blurred faces).For those images with identifiable faces separate image release forms were signed.
Data saturation of social practice theory constructs within interviews was achieved when children's responses to interviewer questions produced limited new data (Saunders et al., 2018).

Data analysis
All audio data from both interviews were transcribed verbatim using Descript automated software (https://www.descript.com/)and edited  by the first author.Coding and thematic analysis was conducted in NVivo 14 (released March 2023, https://lumivero.com/products/nvivo/).Content analyses of drawings and photographs were conducted simultaneously.Demographic data were analysed using simple statistics in Microsoft Excel (https://office.microsoft.com/excel).
As per Fig. 2, data familiarisation occurred through checking and editing initial transcriptions (step 1a) by the first author.Three transcriptions and respective drawings from the creative interview stage were also selected and each team member read these before progressing to manual data coding to highlight 'codable' moments and initial thoughts (step 2a).Concurrently, a draft of the codebook based upon social practice theory was developed by the first author (step 1b) and confirmed by the entire team (step 2b).Codes developed from inductive analysis (step 2a) were compared against the drafted codebook (step 3) before progressing to a second read of the three transcripts and drawings to determine any updates to the codebook (step 4).The codebook was then applied to a larger sample of the entire data set (step 5) by the first author with amendments discussed and agreed with by the full research team.Once no new codes emerged the codebook was assumed to be complete and representative of the full data set.The team finalised the codebook (step 6a) and then the first author applied it to the whole data set (step 6b).
Once complete, codes were sorted into initial themes and checked in relation to the coded extracts and the entire data set (step 7).These were iteratively discussed as a team (steps 8, 9a, 9b).Subsequently, 'macropractice' themes were defined (step 9b), informed by conceptual practice theory frameworks (Castelo et al., 2021) and food literacy constructs (Vidgen & Gallegos, 2014).'Micro-practice' sub-themes were discretely categorised practices under these 'macro-practice' themes.
Finally, children's descriptions of their degree of involvement throughout micro-food practices were categorised as 'less involved', 'in partnership with others (joint food practices with adults or children)', or 'independently'.
The quotes presented in this paper aim to amplify children's voices as a direct representation of the results.To ensure anonymity, children were assigned pseudonyms by the authors.The first author conducted all interviews and has been assigned as 'Sophie' within quotes.Age and sex of children is presented with quotes to provide demographic descriptives.

Positionality statement
From a social constructionist perspective, the results presented are only one possible interpretation of these children's experiences "based on the values, standpoints, and positions of the author[s]" (Daly, 2007, p. 33).The authors acknowledge their position in relation to in the analysis and interpretation of children's descriptions, particularly as adult researchers educated in the dietetic profession.All authors are white, female, Australian-born adults.The first author is a PhD candidate and the second and third authors are academic supervisors with backgrounds in qualitative research methodologies.The first author has no children, and the second and third authors are mothers of young adults.

Results
Age, sex and socio-economic characteristics of children who participated in Creative interview and Photovoice stages are described in Fig. 1.Although not specifically sampled, diversity in cultural background was also captured through children's reports in interviews (including southern Indian, Egyptian, Thai, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Anglo-Celtic backgrounds), as well as family configurations (for example, dual parent families, single parent families, intergenerational families, and blended families).All primary caregivers were identified as parents by children and therefore have been described as such for the remainder of this paper.

Children's everyday food practices
Creative interviews lasted approximately 1 h, and Photovoice interviews lasted approximately 30 min.Food practices that children described engaging within were categorised as 'macro-' or 'micropractices' as per Fig. 3. Macro-practices encompassed broader food practices, themed under the headings planning, acquisition, preparation, consumption and tidy-up.Micro-food practices were more specific, for example, preparing food spaces.Although all five macro-food practices were discussed by children, food acquisition, preparation and consumption practices were more often described.

Food planning
Children's descriptions of food planning centred around determining how to perform subsequent food practices in ways that were preferrable and practical.Micro-practices that children described engaging in included meal planning, constructing shopping lists, deciding where to eat outside of the home, and what to grow in the garden.
Sophie (Interviewer): Who gets to choose what goes in the [school] garden?
Emilia (girl, age 11): Well all of us [kids at school] do.We've got like a poster with the seasonal, like the plants that work best in each month, and we look at them and then we all get to decide what we'd like to plant.
Children's engagement within planning practices typically occurred in homes when parents were starting to prepare meals or were planning the shopping i.e., writing shopping lists, as well as simultaneously when food shopping in stores or packing lunchboxes at home.

Food acquisition
For children, food acquisition occurred via various means, in a variety of settings forming a raft of micro-practices, such as Zoe's description of her drawing in the quote below.
Sophie: What types of foods do you get from these places [referring to Zoe's drawing, To acquire food, children participated in food ordering and purchasing practices in stores, from school tuckshops/canteens and when dining out or ordering takeaway foods.Food stores that children frequented included supermarkets for larger household food provisioning, and independent grocers, specialist stores (e.g., Indian supermarkets and bakeries), and markets, for specific food products on a less regular basis.Larger food acquisition trips typically occurred on weekends whereas during the week, smaller 'top-up' shopping trips would occur in between other practices such as after school when returning home.Online food shopping for weekly groceries or home-meal kits was also described, with children accompanying adults to pick up 'click and collect' orders, particularly after school.Within food stores children were mainly tasked with taking items off the shelf as instructed by parents and placing them in shopping trolleys and occasionally with pushing the trolley or carrying groceries.Children also reminded parents what to buy,   particularly for school lunchboxes, such as Priya in the quote below.In some instances, children did nothing to assist parents, instead 'tagging along' or playing within the store.
Sophie: What do you do when you're at [the supermarket]?Priya (girl, age 8): My mom gets all the things and I'm alone in the cafe and I get a hot chocolate for us.… And when the hot chocolate is quickly, sometimes if it's quickly ready, I just get the two hot chocolates, run to my Mum, and then I say, "remember to buy the [processed fruit puree snack] and the blah, blah, blah." Very occasionally children were allowed to go to smaller independent grocers or speciality food stores alone, or with friends or siblings.During these occasions children would purchase a small number of items for themselves or other children.One child, Ethan in the quote below, mentioned that they would occasionally be asked to purchase bread from the bakery for their family using their parents' money.
Ethan (boy, age 10): Normally [I go to the bakery] with my sister.And if we have friends over we sometimes go to the fish and chip shop.Walk [to the bakery] and get some like bread and stuff.
Acquiring food from school tuckshops varied in frequency with only one child mentioning engaging in daily tuckshop orders.Instead, children more frequently described this practice as occurring on a semiregular basis i.e., once or twice a week, or very occasionally.The practice of acquiring food from the school tuckshop occurred in one of two ways, pre-ordering via online platforms or purchasing directly from the tuckshop during school meal breaks.Online tuckshop ordering occurred outside the school premises, typically in the home and sometimes on the way to school, via a mobile applications or websites.Within schools, children were also tasked with collecting tuckshop orders, either individually from the tuckshop or as a delegated person to pick-up lunch orders for the whole class.
Children also described acquiring food through sharing and trading foods at school with other children, and growing foods at home and in school settings.Self-selection in a 'grab and go' manner was additionally mentioned, such as foods readily accessible within the home as was the case with Sean and walnuts in the following quote and photograph in Fig. 5.
Sophie: Why did you take this photo [referring to Fig. 5]?Sean (boy, age 10): Well since I just like walnuts and I'm constantly snacking on them.… they're in my cupboard in a container over there.So I just get into the container and grab a handful and eat them.
… Sophie: And you can just go in at any time and grab them out of the cupboard.
Sean: Yeah.So it's easy to get.Finally, food was provided to children by adults, such as parents who may have purchased and prepared food within the home, teachers providing food within the school setting, or other adults at after-school care and in other people's homes.This was the case for siblings, Maeve and Sean, who described food provided to them by school teachers.
Maeve (girl, age 12): Although for school, we get a lollipop if we, like for English [class], if we improve our spelling test by five, or get full marks.
… Sean (boy, age 10): Sometimes my teacher gives us, like today she gave us jellybeans.She also did that on Monday.

Food preparation
Children engaged in food preparation practices to make food and food spaces ready for consumption practices.These all occurred in a range of settings, however, descriptions tended to centre around the home environment.
Children described preparing food to eat within the same setting, again typically within the home, but also at grandparents' and other extended family homes and very occasionally at friends' houses.Children performed a multitude of preparation practices.These included getting ingredients out of kitchen storage for parents to use, preparing ingredients by peeling, chopping, and grating them with hands, knives and graters, adding raw ingredients into meals being prepared, mixing foods using spoons, hands and beaters, decorating cakes, taste testing, and assembling foods using ingredients that parents had cooked, as well as frying and baking foods.To do so, children described using numerous everyday cooking appliances such as toasters, blenders, kettles, microwaves (exemplified by Mia in the quote below), stove tops and ovens.These were accompanied by speciality instruments such as egg cookers, piping tips, apple slinky machines, air fryers, and Thermomixers.Sophie: You said cereal.Do you have anything else that you'd make for breakfast?
Mia (girl, age 12): Sometimes toast and eggs.Sophie: Do you make the eggs yourself?Mia: You can make them in the microwave.It's pretty easy.… You whisk up the eggs with the whites and yolks in there, and then you put it in the microwave for like a minute and then you stir it around and then it goes fluffy and goes up.
Children also described the preparation, packing and transportation food in lunchboxes between home and school.In some cases, children prepared foods and lunchboxes for their siblings to consume at school.Lunchboxes tended to be prepared either the afternoon or night before or sometimes the morning of the school day.Storage of food, such as putting foods away after shopping trips, and the preparation of food spaces including setting the table with eating utensils, water, and extra ingredients for the meal were also described by children.
Lakshmi (girl, age 11): Sometimes with food it could be like taking out like the plates, like setting up the tables.And like if it's something quick like take out the yoghurt and like put it into the little bowls for everybody.

Food consumption
Food and drink consumption micro-practices that children engaged in included everyday meal consumption, consumption during special occasions and snacking.
Similar to preparation practices, children's everyday meal consumption practices were predominantly described as occurring in the home, at dining tables and kitchen benches.Meals typically consumed at home included breakfasts and evening meals during the week, and on weekends nearly all meals, as well as takeaway foods bought and consumed within the home.The family unit dominated the social setting of consumption practices, particularly at evening meals and on weekends where meals were whole of family events.For other meals in the home, mainly breakfasts, siblings were described as the only other social actors present.
Most eating occasions were structured and routinised as to where food was consumed and at what time.This was particularly the case for home meals on weekdays during school terms and at meal breaks during school hours.Within some families there were specific days during the week for social food rituals, for example Friday nights would be fun nights for family movies or friends; or weekday nights sharing meals with grandparents; or regular meals on specific nights, such as fish and chips on Wednesdays.Weekends and school holidays were described as more relaxed where there was more time available to consume meals throughout the day and together as a family.This difference in family eating routines throughout the week was described by siblings Meave and Sean.Although most food was eaten within the home, consumption practices were also the most commonly performed food practice within schools.Here, children typically ate food brought from home or bought from the school tuckshop in designated eating areas in the playground at two or three structured break times.Eating spaces within schools included on benches, rocks, or on the ground.Children typically chose to sit with their friends at school mealtimes, although were delegated to designated areas for their year group by teachers.
Children also described the consumption of foods during special occasions.Special occasions were typically described as infrequent celebratory events such as religious and cultural festivals (for example, Halloween, Christmas, Diwali), or parties to celebrate birthdays or the end of school term.These were performed with many different people, such as family, friends, or the wider community.Friends or extended family (i.e., grandparents) coming to consume foods within their home, as well as in other people's homes, were also considered special occasions due to the less frequent and social nature of the event, as described by Ethan in the quote below.Spending time with friends outside of school was seen as a particularly special occasion, more frequently occurring during school holidays.
Sophie: Are there ever times when other people are here having food with you?Ethan (boy, age 10): Yeah, sometimes.Mostly like friends and stuff.Sometimes we have my grandparents come over too.… [We] would probably have like more like sodas and stuff like that like more unhealthy food when people come over.
Sophie: And why do you think that is? Ethan: Um, because it's kind of like a special occasion.Children also described consumption practices in food establishments as special occasions, for example restaurants, clubs, and fast-food establishments, as these were also described as less frequent events and typically revolved around celebrations or when on holidays.
Snacking as a food practice occurred throughout the day in the home, at school and also when moving between settings, such as in the car.For example snacks were described as being consumed on the way to school, from school to after-school activities, returning from a food shopping trip, or during long drives.
Mia (girl, age 12): The other day I was eating a banana on the way to school because I have breakfast at six o'clock every morning.The next break, the next time I get to eat is 11 o'clock.So that's like, that's 5 h between the next meal and I'd get hungry cause I have to walk to school and I'm playing in the morning and I'm playing at school and then I get to eat.That uses a lot of energy so I like eat something on the way to school.

Tidy-up
Tidy-up referred to cleaning practices performed after other food practices, namely preparation and consumption.Micro-practices revolved around cleaning up food practice infrastructure and spaces as well as managing leftovers, either by eating, storing or disposing of them.As tidy-up practices mainly followed preparation and consumption practice these were typically performed in the home, most often after the evening meal.Post-preparation tidying practices performed by children included general cleaning of the area and putting instruments into the dishwasher or sink, as described by Luke below.Postconsumption tidying practices were similar to those post-preparation with the addition of managing leftovers.
Luke (boy, aged 9): I put the plate in the sink, so my Mum, if there's anything left she'll just empty it in the bin, or she would eat it.And then I put it in the dishwasher.
In the school setting cleaning practices typically involved picking up rubbish and disposing it in bins during breaks.

The extent of children's involvement within everyday food practices
Children described varying degrees of involvement throughout their everyday food practices.Levels of engagement spanned from 'less involved', 'in partnership with others (adults or children)', or 'independently' (Fig. 6).Children's level of involvement was not seen to be impacted by their age, sex or socio-economic status.

Less involved
Children tended to be less involved in food planning and storage  practices, with tidy-up practices being performed almost entirely by adults unless they directly asked children to be involved.Sophie: Who cleans up the kitchen when you've done something like that?
Mia (girl, age 12): I mean, I do, well, I probably forget to sometimes and then my Mum just cleans it, but I'm supposed to clean it.
There were also multiple occasions of children describing food preparation practices where they were less involved, particularly when food was simply provided to children.Instead adults performed the practice, such as parents within the home, or grandparents or friends' parents within other homes.These were typically evening meals where children perceived being excluded by adults for safety reasons (as described by Priya in the quote below), to avoid mess, or simply that they were not present when the food was being prepared (for example, during school hours).Children frequently voiced their desire to be more involved, occasionally stating this would assist in building food preparation skills and resulting in preferable foods being prepared. Sophie

In partnership
Children described how practices moved from children being less involved towards being performed in partnership (as indicated by arrows in Fig. 6).Practices performed in partnership between adults and children were predominantly acquisition and preparation practices as well as some planning practices, such as meal planning for school lunches, where to eat when dining outside of the home, and what to grow in gardens.Children described adults assuming different roles within practices either directing, providing guidance, or simply supervising the food practice.Olivia in the following quote describes how a lunchbox meal planning practice was performed in partnership with her mother.
Olivia (girl, age 11): I was having trouble deciding what to have for [school] lunch.Like Mum was ordering the [supermarket shopping online] and so I went online and I was like, 'lunch ideas' [into Google search bar].And then I saw pizzas and I was like, "Mum, can I have a pizza?"And she was like, "what would you have on it?"And I was like, "salami, cheese".
In most cases, practices performed in partnership were initiated through adults inviting or designating children to be involved.For example, children described parents designating specific times for children to have input into meal planning practices (for example, once a week or on special occasions, i.e., birthdays or family movie nights).
Ethan (boy, age 10): Because on Friday we normally have like, like family stuff.Like next Friday we're having like burgers.… We meal planned it today I got to pick the Friday night dinner because uh, we have to make like a meal a week.So I'm making cheeseburgers.
Conversely, child-initiated and directed partnerships typically formed when children had limited self-efficacy in performing the practice, the practice was perceived as higher risk (i.e., working with heat), or required another social actor to access resources necessary for the practice performance (i.e., money for purchasing foods).For example, for school tuckshop ordering, children needed to engage parents as they provided the technology and login for online ordering, as well as the monetary means to pay.Consequently, some children preferred purchasing directly from tuckshops as they could make food decisions independent of their parents.
For adult-initiated preparation practices performed in partnership, children described how adults would either invite children to be involved, or children would ask to be involved.These preparation practices were typically for more complex, whole-of-family meals, where children described more frequently performing simpler and safer tasks as part of the entire practice.Kai in the following quote describes how his mother directed him through small discrete tasks whilst cooking a whole family dinner meal.
Kai (boy, age 9): This one is peas and steak and rice.Sophie: And who cooked it?Kai: Mum and partly me.… I did the beans.You need to cook them.… Mum gives us the ingredients and steps.But like, I know, well when she talks, um, I call it kitchen language, which is when she tells us how to do it.
Sophie: What's an example of kitchen language?Kai: Um, "put half a cup of water into the teaspoon" or something like that.That's kitchen language.
Within both child and adult-initiated higher risk preparation practices, such as cooking using heat, adults and children were both concerned with the child's safety.This meant that adults would likely be involved, sometimes at the child's request, with parents typically providing verbal guidance or taking full responsibility for less safe tasks such as the oven or stove.Occasionally this was informed by historical incidental events where children may have burnt the food or themselves when attempting to prepare hot foods, such as the case with Chloe in the following quote.
Sophie: Who makes the noodle cup when you do it?Chloe (girl, age 9): Sometimes me, sometimes my Mum will, sometimes my Dad.Like everyone.
Sophie: So you can do that yourself if you want to.Chloe: Yeah, but I can't heat up the kettle.Sophie: Why not?Chloe: Because I've done this before at my friend's house with her and it hurt [burnt] my hand and I'm too scared to do it by myself again.
Although some children independently packed lunchboxes, others made packed lunchboxes together with their parents.These partnerships tended to be adult-initiated with parents preparing foods such as sandwiches or wraps and children selecting more snack-like items to place into lunchboxes.In some instances, adults performed all lunchbox preparation practices, however most children described having input either when the lunchbox was being packed or historically through negotiations that had occurred over the years.Emilia in the following quote describes enjoying the lunchbox foods packed by her mother, as shown in the photograph, and the 'trial and error' of this process over time.
Emilia (girl, age 11): I think Mum packed [my lunchbox this dayreferring to photo, Fig. 7] … I think it was a good lunch box.I like the scone because you don't usually get something like that.
Sophie: So why do you think you got it this day?Emilia: Well I asked Mum for it because I wanted to have some, I like scones.
Sophie: Were you surprised when she said yes? Emilia: Um, no.Cause I don't usually ask for things like that, because I'm usually pleased with what I have in my lunchbox.Mum's very good at packing my lunchbox.
Sophie: And how do you think she knows what you like in your lunchbox?
Emilia: I think maybe putting stuff in and then me saying that I don't like it.So like trial and error.
Shared acquisition practices also tended to be adult-initiated with children needing to engage in negotiations to facilitate their intended S. Wright-Pedersen et al. outcomes, such as with parents during food shopping and when making online tuckshop orders in the home, as well as with other children when sharing and trading foods at school.Some children specifically accompanied parents during food shopping trips to impact the foods purchased and described being most influential over school lunchbox foods.

Independently
Children's independence within food practices was facilitated by their capability and self-efficacy to engage in practices, accompanied by parents' confidence in children's ability and their willingness to relinquish power over food practices.Children described parents as more likely to allow them to independently perform food practices that were discrete tasks, such as preparing food spaces, as well as when the foods acquired or prepared were only for children to consume (such as selecting foods to consume out of kitchen cupboards, preparing snacks, or packing school lunchboxes).
Children described wanting to independently perform preparation procedures to have greater control over the quality, variety and tastiness of the foods prepared.For example, children enjoyed preparing school lunchboxes because it gave them greater choice over the quantities and types of foods they would consume at school, as described by Priya in the quote below.They also described that if parents packed lunchboxes, they would receive the same item as their siblings even if preferences differed.Children also described complementing adults' preparation practices by preparing additional foods for themselves to consume within the same meal.
Sophie Children who independently packed lunchboxes, described initiating this practice due to this desire for choice or because their parents had directed them to.In either case, children believed preparing and packing lunchboxes was a good skill to possess, preparing them for future circumstances when they could not rely on others, as described by siblings Owen and Zoe below.
Sophie: Do you think kids should be making their own lunches?Owen (boy, age 10): Yeah.Like from year three [ages 8-9 years].Maybe, maybe not.But then year three and up, they should definitely start making their lunches.
Sophie: Why do you think they should be doing that?Owen: Learning.For when they grow up.Zoe (girl, age 8): Yeah, cause when they grow up, you can't just randomly start doing it.You got to have like know "do I put healthy food in for my kids or should I put junk food in?" Owen: It's not just like click your fingers and servants come.
Occasionally preparation performances were conducted by children out of necessity to satiate hunger especially when other social actors were unavailable.
Sophie: Who prepares most of the food in your home?Ali (boy, age 11): Sometimes, most of the time my Mum and Dad do.But sometimes I cook for myself if my parents aren't around or because I just feel like doing it.
As indicated previously, children were more likely to perform preparation practices in a more independent manner when they were perceived as quick and simple tasks, as described by siblings Grace and Henry.
Sophie: What types of foods would you help make?Grace (girl, age 10): Well, like simple ones that aren't too hard for us to make.… [fried] eggs for breakfast.… They're quick and easy.
Henry (boy, age 8): And they're yummy.… We do it all by ourselves.Entry level preparation tasks for children to begin performing independently typically involved foods that did not require heating or complex preparation infrastructure.For example, cereal and sandwiches requiring only bowls, and butter knives posing little safety risk.Specific preparation equipment when heating up foods also reduced the need for high level preparation skills.These included toasters and toasted sandwich makers, waffle-makers, blenders for smoothies, kettles for boiling water for noodle cups, and microwaves for heating up and transforming foods.These devices were described as relatively safe and simple to use, typically only required plugging into electricity sockets and monitoring.
There were however instances where children described independently performing more complex preparation tasks, although parents were usually supervising.In these instances, recipes in cookbooks and on food packages were more frequently used by children, particularly when baking desserts or when preparing foods for the first time.This was accompanied by children's proficiency with less safer tasks such as cutting with sharp knives, using the stove top to fry eggs, pancakes, or quesadillas in a pan, and baking in the oven.For example, Mia in the quote below details her competence in frying an egg (accompanied by the photograph in Fig. 8), describing it as a 'pretty straightforward' task.
Mia (girl, age 12): Well, it's pretty straightforward.I just crack the egg onto the pan, and then I let it cook.This [photo, Fig. 8] was probably about like a minute away from it being at my like preferable like amount of cooked-ness.I wanted it runny so I could have it on like bread or something.… … Sophie: And how do you like get it out of the pan? … Mia: I think I do it two ways.Uh, well, if I scrambled eggs, I would have a fork from scrambling right.So I'd wash that off and then I'd use the fork and then the spatula that is around.I don't know why.And then I like take it and then put it onto the plate, like by using a scooping method.But if it's not that, then sometimes I'll like just take the whole pan and just like [enacts picking up pan and turning over with hands not using spatula], and just like flip it onto the [plate].
Children also described independently performing food consumption practices.In this case, children possessed the required skills to do so (for example, placing foods onto forks and putting this to their mouths), with limited interference from adults except to encourage children to consume more foods (such as vegetables).

Discussion
This study aimed to garner children's perspectives of their engagement and involvement in everyday food practices.Children described engaging in a multitude of macro-and micro-food practices.Although these were predominantly food acquisition, preparation and consumption practices, as per previous literature (Martin Romero & Francis, 2020;Monalisa et al., 2023), children also described engaging in planning and tidy-up practices.
By delineating both macro-and micro-food practices through a social practice theory lens, further detail as to the tasks children described being engaged in could be described, adding depth and breadth to existing literature.For example, current literature that has privileged children's voices has been primarily concerned with their food consumption.However this study, has highlighted the importance of presenting the array of food practices that children engage in across their everyday lives as an extensive network of practices across contexts that cannot be separated.This study was additionally able to convey how macro-and micro-food practices presented across children's everyday lives, rather than isolated to specific settings.For example, children's increased involvement in lunchbox preparation practices within the home were associated with reports of increased enjoyment and consumption within schools.Further, although food acquisition practices were performed within supermarkets, they were also performed within homes using online devices, growing foods, or selecting foods from cupboards, and within schools from tuckshops, school gardens, and in the school yard when trading with other children.This provides breadth to studies previously investigating children's practices within isolated settings, for example (Castro et al., 2021;Gram & Grønhøj, 2016), establishing a foundation to further explore how children's involvement in food planning, acquisition and preparation practices across multiple settings may contribute towards their food consumption.
Delineating micro-food practices also proved useful in showcasing children's varied level of involvement within macro-food practices.Similarities of children's descriptions of their involvement within food practices can be drawn to children's participation frameworks, such as those of Hart (1992) and Shier (2001), varying from less involved, performing practices in either adult-directed or child-directed partnerships, or children independently performing tasks.Although children described performing some preparation and all consumption practices independently, these were preceded by other food practices performed either in partnership with or completely by adults.Thus, children were not independent across food practices as an entity, but rather fluctuating in their involvement.This fluctuating level of involvement was driven by adults' willingness to support children's input and involvement, and children's willingness and desirability to participate.Identifying these involvement drivers and the relationship between them is an important step in understanding the nature of child-adult partnerships and children's participation within food practices.Distinctions between these drivers could be seen in children's descriptions of adults inviting children to participate in food preparation compared to being directed by adults to perform tidy-up practices.It is important to recognise that not all children desired to be involved in food practices, such as examples presented in food planning and tidy-up, and that opportunities for children to voluntarily opt out of participation is a critical component of appreciating them as active subjects with agency over their food worlds (Hart, 1992).Understanding children's ability to exert decision-making power within food practices may prove useful.For example, identifying children's independence within food consumption practices, compared to other food practices, may provide alternate insights into food consumption practices that have traditionally been framed as "deviant", such as 'fussy eating' (Walton et al., 2017).Alternatively, not engaging in adult-directed consumption practices, may instead be framed as children finding opportunities to exert their agency, possibly responding to limited power and input within preceding food practices.This is supported by children's accounts of independently engaging within lunchbox packing practices to exert greater control.

Strengths and limitations
Strengths of the current study centre around the application of developmentally appropriate methods to enable the privileging of children's voices and the research setting moving beyond the school which has previously predominated children's food literature.This was further strengthened through the collection of data both within school term and school holiday periods giving a broad perspective of children's food practices in different temporal dimensions.Paired or focus group discussions with siblings showed strengths in children prompting each other and adding further context during discussions.Occasionally, one sibling would dominate the discussion, with the interviewer needing to actively direct questions at other siblings.Compared to individual interviews however, group interviews did not differ in the detail of information.However, there are limitations, such as the self-selected nature of the sample where children and families recruited were likely biased towards being more interested and involved in food practices.As such, findings described by children are non-generalisable to wider population groups.Although the use of social media as a recruitment tool may have missed families not engaged in these online sites, it was able to achieve the desired sample size whilst achieving diversity regarding age, sex and socio-economic status.Further research with children from larger samples, particularly targeting more diverse and minority sub-population groups is encouraged to further understand the array of food practices children engage within, and the extent of their involvement.

Conclusion
Through garnering children's perspectives, the extent of their involvement within everyday food planning, acquisition, preparation, consumption and tidy-up practices across everyday contexts were able to be documented.Children presented themselves as agentic, competent and capable both within food practice performances and the research itself.Children's involvement across these food practices varied from being less involved to performing practices independently.This was influenced largely by adults' willingness to relinquish control and children's desire to participate, as well as other contextual factors.These findings may be used as a foundation to encourage parents and other adults to invite and support children to be involved in food practices that they report being less involved in, such as food planning tasks.Overall, this study showcased the complex nature of children's involvement in their everyday food practices, adding new knowledge, depth and breadth to that already obtained from parents, teachers and adult researchers.
Understanding children's perspectives of their level of involvement within everyday food practices has the potential to provide deeper insights into where best to direct future research and food and nutrition professional practice towards, such as children for lunchbox strategies and parents and children within food shopping interventions, as well as involving children in food-related policy, such as those directed towards school tuckshops.
Fig. 4]?Zoe (girl, age 7): I have got bakery, McDonald's™ [restaurant], sushi train [restaurant], Nanna's [grandmother's house], [our] home, Coles™ [supermarket], Brookside [shopping centre] and Bunnings™ [hardware store].At the bakery … [I get] custard tarts.And McDonald's™, we have chips and those little juices, and then at the sushi train, I normally like the dessert, and I like the rice and the avocado sushi.And Nanna's I love the miso soup and the dessert.Home, I like what we have for dessert.… Coles™ because in that big shop where I would saw some yummy foods.And Brookside, well, it's like Coles™, I love getting the fruit.Bun-nings™, I like the sausages.
S.Wright-Pedersen et al.

Fig. 2 .
Fig. 2. Diagrammatic representation of abductive data analysis process conducted by the first author (grey) and whole research team (white).
S.Wright-Pedersen et al.
Sophie: And then during the week for breakfast, like what would you usually have?Maeve (girl, age 12): Well, I've been having [a wheat-based brick breakfast cereal] since it's quick.And then I have bananas in it but the banana's a bit squishy, so I haven't had it like that much.Sean (boy, age 10): So sometimes I have scrambled eggs.And then I also have some [corn-based flaked breakfast cereal] sometimes.… During the week.… Since usually on the weekends our breakfasts are more together.Since like, everyone's not like going to since Maeve goes to school at like … Maeve: I have to be, I have to leave before seven.Sean: So then Liam (younger brother, age 8) and me, we would get up at like six [in the morning], but I'll get up at like six and then I would read for like half an hour.So by the time Meave's had breakfast, I'm just going downstairs.

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Extent of children's involvement (grey) within micro-food practices.Micro-food practices have been colour-coded against macro-food practices of food planning (red), acquisition (yellow), preparation (blue), consumption (green), and tidy-up (purple).Arrows indicate movement across levels of involvement.
: Do you ever make food at home with your Mum? Priya (girl, age 7): She does most of it.She never lets me cook.Sophie: Would you like to? Priya: Yeah, I'd like to.Sophie: So why don't you, why doesn't she let you?Priya: She thinks it's too dangerous with the hot pots and stuff.However, some children preferred not always having to be involved in food practices, for example meal planning (as described by Maeve below), tidy-up, or lunchbox preparation practices, instead viewing these tasks as occasionally laborious.Sophie: Do you have a preferred meal?… Maeve (girl, age 12): Probably dinner because like it's like more set and it's not like you have to think and decide what's happening because it's [a meal subscription and delivery service].Like, we know what we're going to get.Like it's not like, oh, you're thinking about what you should have for lunch.