Themes that emerged from interviews and FGDs
| Themes | Codes | Code descriptions | Sample quotations | Frequency | Saliency |
| Parents’ beliefs and perception of weight and feeding practices in primary schoolchildren | Perception of beauty | A child who appears to be overweight is more desirable. | “…because I believe that my child is more attractive when she is heavy than when she is skinny.” (Respondent 8, female) | 6 | High saliency |
| A well-fed child | An overweight child symbolises a well-fed and well-cared-for child. | “All my children look like that (overweight), and it is because we feed them and take good care of them.” (Respondent 3, male) | 6 | High saliency | |
| Food practices and perception of parents and children | Preference for traditional foods | Parents feed children more starch than protein because it is perceived as more nutritious and ‘filling’. | “Some people will only be feeding their children meat, meat, meat, which is a bad idea… the garia, rice ballsb and kenkeyc is healthier [sic]… that is how I was brought up and I am very fine.” (Respondent 3, male) | 4 | High saliency |
| Substituting sweets with fruits and vegetables | Parents are replacing the consumption of highly processed and energy-dense foods with wholesome fruits and vegetables. | “My relatives, especially my aunties tell me that too much sugar is not good for me. Rather, I should eat a lot of fruits and vegetables as it will help me grow healthy.” | 4 | High saliency | |
| Perceptions of parents on school feeding | Parents have superstitious beliefs about school feeding. Also, the availability of school-based programmes aimed at fostering the consumption of healthy food. | “… we opted out of the school feeding because you cannot be too careful. We do not know how healthy the food is or whether someone has bewitched it…” (Respondent 2, female) “In our school, every Friday is dedicated to eating fruits. This has been helpful.” | 4 | High saliency | |
| Changing dietary practices: the impact of westernisation and socioeconomic status | Modern versus traditional feeding | Parents who viewed traditional forms of feeding as unhealthy discarded it for modern feeding styles that were characterised by balanced diets and authoritative feeding. | “… I feed my children a lot of salad so the food I prepare must be able to go with salad. Most local foods do not go well with salad and most of them are too heavy and starchy.” (Respondent 5, female) | 5 | High saliency |
| Westernised feeding knowledge | Parents prefer using feeding knowledge and practices from books, reports, magazines and websites. | “I do a lot of research into the feeding of my child… no, my feeding is not remotely informed by my culture but by what I have read and learnt since I became a father.” (Respondent 9, female) | 7 | High saliency | |
| Accessing health foods | The likely people and places children go to for food. | “My mother and sometimes my father prepare healthy food for me.” | 4 | High saliency | |
| Lifestyle at home and obesogenic environment | Sedentary lifestyle | Most of the student’s day is spent in class or at home studying, while a fraction of that time is spent exercising or playing. Also, the use of electronics defines playtime. | “Nowadays all the children know are gadgets and no activity… after school they will have extra classes for hours then by the time they get home, they are exhausted to even be active. So, they are always indoors on their gadgets.” (Respondent 9, female) | 3 | Medium saliency |
| Home physical activity environment | Some children do not have friends who live in the neighbourhood or have access to outdoor spaces to encourage an active lifestyle. | “I also blame the way our house is designed—there is little room to play ball and conduct outdoor games, so they are not motivated to be active outside. Funny enough, this is not the Ghanaian way.” (Respondent 9, female) | 3 | Medium saliency |
Source: Field Data Collection, August 2022.
FGD, focus group discussion.