Changing family food and eating practices: the family food decision-making system.

BACKGROUND Food decision-making processes interact with family and community environments to shape families' thinking (i.e., their constructed reality) about food, eating, health, and well-being as discussed by Gillespie and Gillespie (J Fam Consum Sci 99(2):22-28 2007). PURPOSE To understand the processes and impetuses for changing family food and eating routines and policies and to develop a framework for the family food decision-making system (FFDS). METHODS Interviews and observations with parents and change agents were used to generate grounded theory in the form of propositions which provided the basis for the FFDS framework. RESULTS The propositions elucidate the processes of and influences on family food decision-making systems. The framework illustrates the family food decision-making system and processes of changing family food and eating routines and policies. CONCLUSION The FDMS framework begins to address the complexity of food decision-making to guide intervention planning and further research.