‘Mam, dat is eigenlijk niet zo gezond’*

Objective/Design

Information regarding school-based health-promoting interventions’ potential effects in the home environment is scarce. Gaining more insight into this is vital to optimise interventions’ potential. The Healthy Primary School of the Future (HPSF) is a Dutch initiative aiming to improve children’s health and well-being by providing daily physical activity sessions and healthy school lunches. This qualitative study examines if and how HPSF influenced children’s and parents’ physical activity and dietary behaviours at home.

Method

In 2018–2019, 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents from two HPSF schools. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and data were coded and interpreted through thematic analysis.

Results

HPSF resulted in various behavioural changes at home, initiated by both children and parents. Parents reported improvements in healthy behaviours, as well as compensatory, unhealthy behaviours. Reasons for behavioural change included increased awareness, perceived support to adopt healthy behaviours, and children asking for the same healthy products at home. Barriers to change included no perceived necessity for change, lack of HPSF-related information provision, and time and financial constraints.

Conclusion

Both child-to-adult intergenerational learning and parent-initiated changes play an important role in the transfer of health behaviours from school to home and are therefore key mechanisms to maximise school-based health-promoting interventions’ impact.

Conflict of interest and financial support: ICMJE forms provided by the authors are available online along with the full text of this article.