Who do parents perceive is pressuring them to buy unhealthy (and healthy) foods?

Increasingly, academic and lay discussion of children’s nutrition has focused on the role of the media, and marketing more generally, in influencing children’s food choices. While numerous studies have focused on the direct effects of chidlren’s exposure to advertisng on their food preferences and choices, there have been fewer studies on the role of marketing in influencing parent’s decisions about what foods they give to their child. We surveyed parents about their children’s food requests and the perceived influences on their food choices; and found that parents experience, or perceive, a number of external pressures on them in making food choices for their children.