Background: There is evidence to suggest that the family is becoming a more democratic unit and that children are spending more on sweet snack items than ever before. A study was thus undertaken to investigate the influence of children on parental decision-making in relation to the use of sugary snacks.
Methods: A cross sectional interview study; children aged 7-8 years from 20 inner-city Manchester primary schools were asked about their sweet eating, their pocket money and their perceived levels of influence or autonomy within the household. The parents of these children were also asked to fill in a questionnaire that mirrored the children's questions.
Results: There was a moderate but significant correlation between the opinion of the parents and that of the children on the extent of influence (Pearson coefficient r = 0.25, P = 0.001). When the adults (n = 181) were split into age groups, <or= 29 years (n = 33), 30-35 years (n = 61) and >or= 36 years (n = 87), the study showed that the older the adult, the less the child seemed to get his or her own way. Spearman's rho = 0.16, P = 0.03 (children's view) and rho = 0.17, P = 0.02 (adult's view). The dominant factors were related to money in the children's opinion, although the adults' data suggested that older mothers (>or= 36 years) may be trying to limit their children's access to sweet snacks.
Conclusions: Adults' efforts to limit their children's intake of sweet snacks and drinks are being undermined by earlier and earlier influences in the child's life and by access to money, which allows the child to out-manoeuvre his or her parents. This is compounded by the provision of additional income, mostly from grandparents.