Table 1.

Overall study description

Study (author, year, country)	Study purpose	Recruitment/inclusion criteria	Sample size	Interviewee	Age of children (range, mean)	Race/ ethnicity (%)	Data collection method	Analytic technique	Quality Appraisal
Harris, Jansen & Rossi, 2020  Australia [28]	To explore fathers' perceptions, beliefs, attitudes and lived experiences of mealtime interactions with children and other family members	Convenience sampling at a work site Fathers of children aged 0 –12 years	27	Fathers	$\le$ 12 years	Not specified	Focus group	Grounded theory	7
Khandpur, Charles, & Davison, 2016  USA [16]	To examine co-parenting dynamics in the context of food parenting in a diverse sample of fathers	Purposive sampling and snowball sampling from the community, existing database, social network Fathers of a child aged between 2–10 years	37	Fathers	2–10 years	White or black, non-Hispanic	semi-structured interviews	Thematic analysis	8
Khandpur, Charles, Blaine et al., 2016 USA [33]	To identify the specific food parenting practices utilized by fathers and describe how these practices varied by fathers’ education levels and their residential status	Purposive sampling and snowball sampling from the community, existing database, social network Fathers of a child aged between 2–10 years	40	Fathers	2–10 years	White & black	Semi-structured interviews	Thematic analysis	8
Lindsay et al. 2018 USA [19]	To examine Latino fathers’ beliefs, attitudes and practices related to their young children’s eating, physical activity, and sedentary behavior		28	Fathers	2 – 8 years	Latino	Focus group	Thematic analysis	7
Lowenstein et al 2013 USA [34]	To explore the cultural implications on Latino caregivers’ definition of obesity and feelings about the provider–parent interaction when dis cussing weight, diet and physical activity	Convenience sampling in the community Male parent/caregiver of a child who was 12 years or younger	24	Fathers	$\le$ 12 years	Black, White & Latino	Focus groups discussion; observation of verbal and nonverbal interactions	Thematic analysis	7
Neshteruk et al., 2020 [20]	To characterise fathers’ involvement in children’s physical activity as well as to identify the physical activity parenting practices commonly used by fathers	Convenience sampling in the community Fathers aged $\ge$ 18 years having a child aged between 3–11 years	24	Fathers	3 – 11 years	White, Black	Semi-structured interviews	Deductive thematic analysis	8
Salemonsen et al., 2022 [35]	to explore perceptions of contributing factors to childhood overweight and obesity among fathers of children with overweight or obesity and the fathers’ experiences of their parental role caring for a child with overweight or obesity	Purposive sampling in the community	8	Fathers	4–16 years	Not specified	Semi-structured interview	Thematic analysis	8
Sherman & Smith, 2019 USA [32]	To investigate African American (AA) fathers’ perceived role in promoting healthful decisions related to dietary patterns among their children	Purposive sampling with snowball sampling in the community AA fathers aged $\ge$ 18 years having a child aged between 6–18 years	20	Fathers	6 – 18 years	AA	Focus group	Grounded theory	8
Tan et al 2020 USA [26]	To understand how fathers and mothers jointly navigate child feeding and identify areas of child feeding where fathers and mothers agree and/or disagree	Convenience sampling in the community, clinics, child care centers etc married or cohabitating heterosexual couples, both have lived with the child for at least 1 years	30 couples = 60	Mothers, fathers	3– 5.99 years	White & black Non-Hispanic	Focus group	Thematic analysis	8
Turner et al 2014  USA [27]	To examine Mexican American and Mexican immigrant fathers’ and mothers’ approaches to making decisions about their family’s lifestyle behaviors, as well as current diet and physical activities	Convenience sampling in the Mexican community (local libraries and schools) Two parents Mexican–American or Mexican–immigrant families with school aged children	66	Mothers, fathers	1–18 years	Mexican- American & Mexican	Focus groups	Grounded theory	8
Vollmer 2018 USA [30]	To understand how fathers of preschool-age children define overweight and obesity in children and what leads a child to become overweight or obese, investigate how fathers control or attempt to control their child’s weight, and explore the father’s perceived role in making decisions regarding his child’s weight status	Online survey Fathers of $\ge$ one child aged 3–5 years reporting eating more than one meal/wk with the child, and being aged $\ge$ 18 years	117	Fathers	3–5 years	White, Non-Hispanic	Open-ended questions	Content analysis	7
Walsh et al. 2017 Australia [31]	To assess fathers' beliefs and perceived roles in the eating and physical activity behaviors of their young children, and examine fathers' views regarding the type of support they require to best promote healthy eating and physical activity behaviors in their young children	Purposive sampling and snowball sampling in the community Fathers of at least one child aged $\le$ 5 years	20	Fathers	Mean age = 3.6 years	Not specified	Semi-structured interviews	Thematic analysis	7
Zhang et al 2018 USA [29]	To explore Latino fathers’ perspectives and parenting practice experiences regarding early adolescents’ eating, physical activity, and screen-time behaviors	Convenience sampling at the Latino community centers and one charter school Fathers self-identified as Latino having a least one child aged 10–14 years	26	Fathers	10–14 years	Latino	Focus groups	Grounded theory	7