Food socialization in early childhood
- 15.07.2014
- English Articles
- Simon Reitmeier
Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: February 26, 2014 | Revision accepted: May 5, 2014
Introduction
The first phase of socialization - primary socialization in infancy and early childhood - is particularly important, as the child’s basic personality structures are developed at this time.
Primary socialization takes place almost exclusively within the family, in the child’s direct exchange with the parents [1]. At this point, certain values, standards, beliefs and expectations are conveyed to the child by the family, which are also influenced by social background [2].
Through everyday interaction, imitation and familiarization, the child takes on the parents’ patterns of thought and action, the habitus, which manifests itself in language, posture, manners and taste preferences, and thereby experiences structured imprinting [3]. In terms of diet, this means that children also imitate, internalize and take on the taste preferences and food habits of parents. And it seems as if these processes of taking on the parental taste pattern begin in the womb.
Summary
The extent to which the mother’s diet has an influence on the prenatal and postnatal taste development of the child is not clear. However, research agrees that taste imprinting begins in the womb. It is a development process that begins with the foetus and continues throughout the person’s entire life span. The emotional factor and the emotional bond must also play an important role in the question of whether we enjoy eating or are indifferent or hostile to the consumption of food and see it more as a necessity than an opportunity for enjoyment. The mother-child bond and the first experiences of pleasure and food in infancy and childhood must therefore be fundamental and formative. How the diet of adolescents and adults tangibly develops, what ends up on the plate and what is preferred, remain significantly dependent on the surrounding culture, the position in the social sphere and the resulting habitus as well as the conditions and attitudes in the family.
Keywords: Food socialization, taste, sociology of food, nutritional habits, habitus, emotion, food culture, sociology
