Table 1.

Key themes and quotes from the focus group discussion data analysis on dietary behaviours

Theme	Representative quotes
Intrapersonal influences – knowledge of healthy eating	Understanding of healthy eating ‘(Vegetable is healthy) because it has vitamins and nutrients’ ‘(Fast food is not healthy) because it’s fried and it’s very oily… And it is very salty.’ (FG1, girls, 9–10 years old) ‘Healthy eating means eating fruits’, ‘Not eating any snacks’, ‘Vegetables’, ‘Drink water and do not drink sweet drinks’ (FG5, girls, 11 years old) Recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables ‘ (We need) at least half of the plate’, ‘or two portions’ (FG6, girls, 11 years old) ‘30 % rice, 20 % veggie, 50 % meat.’ (FG7, boy, 11 years old) Importance of healthy eating ‘You can grow very tall and smooth skin and pretty.’ (FG1, girl, 9–10 years old) ‘It (healthy foods) can help you grow taller, grow stronger.’ (FG3, boy, 9–10 years old) ‘Eating unhealthy foods everyday will grow very fat and die’ (FG7, boy, 11 years old) ‘I just think that like eating healthier will make me more healthy… because if you eat a lot of like unhealthy food, like a lot of salt, it will make your liver like maybe have uh cancer.’ (FG11, boy, 12 years old)
Intrapersonal influences – attitude towards healthy eating	Consequences of unhealthy eating was not of immediate concern to them Comparing Picture A (unhealthy foods) and Picture B (healthy foods) ‘B is healthy’ ‘Less sugar, less chance to get diabetes’ ‘But we still like A’ ‘because it’s yummy and taste better’. (FG2, girls, 9–10 years old) ‘Need to enjoy food. We only have less than 75 years to live. Eat all food we can; I don’t care (if) we get diabetes’ (FG10, boy, 12 years old) Food preferences ‘Most of the time, (if) the foods is not nice, it is healthy… Nice (foods) are not healthy.’ (FG8, boy, 11 years old) ‘If no chili in kangkong (a type of vegetable), I don’t want to eat.’, ‘Unless you can disguise until it looks like some other food then I will eat.’ (FG6, girls, 11 years old) ‘Sometimes (savory snacks and sweets are) too sweet, too salty or bitter. I don’t really like them anymore but sometimes if I want to eat, I try not to eat’ (FG1, girl, 9–10 years old) Rationalizing unhealthier eating habits ‘We can eat unhealthy food and then go exercise’ (FG10, boy, 12 years old) ‘Because there’s potato in fries. Potato is vegetable, vegetable is healthy.’ (FG6, girl, 11 years old) ‘Depends on mood. So, is it depending on whether you like the food or not, or whether you feel like eating or not? Or if I’m full, I just don’t care.’ (FG11, boy, 12 years old)
Interpersonal influences – parents’ influences on children’s accessibility to food and children’s attitudes and values towards food.	Parental food restrictions ‘I haven’t eaten at McDonalds for a long time’ ‘I only eat once a month’ ‘I only eat that on special days.’ (FG4, boys, 9–10 years old) ‘My father will scold me if I eat too much fast foods. He says, ‘You’ll grow fat.’’ (FG5, girl, 11 years old) ‘My mother won’t let me eat sweets and snacks, because too unhealthy. Fast foods are very, very, very, very rare.’ (FG8, boy, 11 years old). Children’s response to food restrictions ‘My mum doesn’t like us to eat snacks, but I listen to my mum so she’s happy with me’’ (FG1, girl, 9–10 years old) ‘My mum has this secret stash that she thinks no one knows but obviously everybody knows, so I go there every day for seaweed, nuts, and some chips’ (FG7, boy, 11 years old). ‘Secretly yeah, go to the mama shop (convenient store) to eat Maggi mee (instant noodles). Then tell my mum that my teacher uh, held me back late.’ (FG9, girl, 12 years old) Parents provide healthy foods at home ‘My father gets my family to eat fruits daily.’ (FG10, boy, 12 years old) ‘At home uh they will usually cook it with sauce… In school, they just serve plain vegetables.’ (FG6, girl, 11 years old) Parents educate and prompt children to eat healthily ‘Your arteries will be clogged and can die… (I learn) from my father’ (FG8, boy, 11 years old) ‘My mother says if you eat more sweets, (they) will grow more worms. These worms will eat your nutrients!’ (FG4, boy, 10 years old)) ‘My parents ask me to do this and that, like eat fruits and vegetables, but they themselves don’t do it’ (FG10, boy, 12 years old) Children model after parents’ dietary habits ‘My dad and I like to snack together.’ (FG5, girl, 11 years old) ‘(We) rarely eat fast food. ‘Cause we don’t - my parents don’t like eating oily food too’ (FG11, boy, 12 years old)
Interpersonal influences – peer influence	‘During snack time, my friend will, like, pass me a bit of sweets, and then I will (shows the action of sneaking sweet into mouth)’ (FG5, girl, 11 years old) (What do you usually eat with your friends when you go out?) ‘McDonalds’, ‘Maggie mee (instant noodles)’, ‘We’ll go 7-Eleven.’ (FG10, boys, 12 years old) ‘My friend will force me to eat’ (FG5, girl, 11 years old) ‘My friend try will try (the vegetable) first… (If) they say it’s nice, then I’ll eat’ (FG9, girl, 12 years old)) ‘Of course, every child eats fast foods!’ (FG1, girl, 9–10 years old)
Interpersonal influences – teacher’s influence during meal and snack times	‘Primary 1 to Primary 3 I ate roti prata (a type of fried bread) during recess. Then teacher says to change it, because roti prata contains a lot of oil. Then I changed to eating fish ball noodles’ (FG9, girl, 12 years old) ‘Oh, teacher always says, ‘Healthy things!’, but some still bring cake like those type of snacks. Then my teacher will take it away, like the chips they will take it away.’ ‘But my teachers won’t take, they will just scold you.’ (FG05, girls, 11 years old) ‘Miss A said uh no sweets, no potato chips, no unhealthy food, but we don’t care ‘cause not like the teacher is gonna do a spot check or something.’ ‘We ate (less unhealthy snacks) in front of our teacher before, but she didn’t say anything. So, I assume we can bring such snacks.’ (FG10, boys, 12 years old)
Environmental influences – Health education in schools and school policies	‘Yeah, in the Health Education and I remember last time in P5, they give us like this plate to follow, the plate is split into half and quarters.’ (FG11, boys, 12 years old) ‘We are forced to eat fruits every day… Every single plate of food, they will give you fruits.’ (FG6, girls, 11 years old) ‘Every time I get fruit, I throw away. The fruit is not nice.’, ‘I didn’t eat the vegetables because it’s hard to swallow. I just leave it there’, ‘I give to my friend’ (FG4, boys, 10 years old)
Environmental influences – incentives and environmental cues in school	‘You must pose while eating it, then Mr S would take photo. I think to show proof… then he will pass you the Fruity Veggie card. And then at the end (of the year), we see which class is the winner.’ (FG1, girl, 9–10 years old) ‘In our canteen, on the wall the school paste the banner of the My Healthy Plate.’ (FG9, girl, 12 years old) ‘They got all these posters all around the school but so sad, no one looks at them’ (FG7, boy, 11 years old)
Environmental influences – food accessibility in neighbourhoods	‘I just got to walk 5, 10 min to reach McDonald’s’ (FG1, girl, 9–10 years old) ‘I buy chips from either 7-Eleven or mama shop (convenient store). There is one, just across the street (from school).’ (FG6, girl, 11 years old) ‘Like after school, I go home, there’s a Mart on the way back and I always cross there when I go home, and I just go over there to get chips because it’s very convenient.’ (FG7, boy, 11 years old).
Macrosystem influences – health promotion advertisements	‘Advertisement at the bus stop for Let’s Beat Diabetes. They didn’t show the particular food, but they say the which food is healthy.’ (FG8, boy, 11 years old) ‘What less sugar, less salt, less oil ah, all these… Everywhere in Singapore will have one poster on healthy eating’ (FG9, girl, 12 years old)