Toying with Healthy Eating: Developing a Play-Based Nutrition 
                     Education Program 
         
                            
                            
                            
                           by 
                            
                            
                            
                            
                        Meghan Lynch  
                            
         
         
                            
                            
                            
                A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements 
                   for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy  
                    Dalla Lana School of Public Health 
                       University of Toronto 
                            
                            
                            
         
                            
         
                    ©Copyright by Meghan Lynch 2015 
         
         Toying with Healthy Eating: Developing a Play-Based Nutrition Education Program 
                              
                          Meghan Lynch 
                              
                        Doctor of Philosophy 
                              
                     Dalla Lana School of Public Health 
                        University of Toronto 
                              
                            2015 
                              
                           Abstract 
         
        Kindergarten-aged children are a key group for establishing lifelong healthy eating 
        behaviours. However, current school-based nutrition education programs have reported little 
        success in achieving this important goal. Though a number of different reasons account for 
        programs’ limited success, I focused on creating a kindergarten nutrition education program 
        rooted in theory that also considered the needs and preferences of the teachers who implement 
        such programs in their classes. Consequently, the present thesis describes the process of 
        developing a preliminary draft of a kindergarten play-based nutrition education program, 
        Sociodramatic Nutrition Activities for Kindergartens (SNAK). 
         
        With the overarching goal of developing SNAK, I drew upon traditional and innovative data 
        in order to learn about play-based teaching and healthy eating in kindergartens through a two 
        phase process: 1. Program Landscaping, where I analyzed provincial and territorial ministry of 
                             ii 
        education healthy eating kindergarten curricula and conducted a netnography (comprised of 
        analyzing kindergarten teachers’ social media discussions and interviewing a sample of 
        kindergarten teachers). 2. Program Development, where I developed SNAK based upon 
        findings derived from phase one.   
         
        Analysis of the curricula, social media discussions, and teacher interviews revealed a myriad 
        of factors that influence teachers when they implement play-based teaching and healthy eating 
        in kindergarten classes. Findings both replicate and suggest new research questions for the 
        nutrition and education literature. These findings also greatly benefited the development of 
        SNAK. Future SNAK research includes further development and pilot testing to determine if 
        kindergarten children (and teachers) can benefit from the program. Furthermore, I also 
        describe how I combined traditional and innovative data and the insights obtained through 
        netnography. Opportunities for developing programs and forming hypotheses can be found 
        through examining the vast amount of teacher social media discussions, and I encourage other 
        researchers to seek out innovative data.  
                             iii 
                        Acknowledgements 
         
        It gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to thank the many people who contributed 
        to this thesis. I extend my sincerest appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Daniel Sellen, for 
        providing both guidance throughout this process and freedom to pursue independent work. I 
        would like to acknowledge my internal thesis committee members, Drs. Catherine Mah and 
        Amy McPherson, and external members, Drs. Donna Matheson, Ann Fox, and Anthony 
        Hanley, for their time and efforts into ensuring my thesis was an enriching and valuable 
        experience. Though she was not a member of my committee, I would also like to thank Dr. 
        Audrey Giles for providing additional mentorship throughout my graduate degrees. 
         
        I am grateful to have received support for this degree in the form of a Vanier Scholarship from 
        the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and a University 
        of Toronto Open Fellowship. 
         
        Many thanks as well to all the anonymous journal reviewers and editors for sharing their 
        expertise and significantly improving all of my articles. 
         
        This research would not have been possible without the generosity of all the teachers who 
        contributed to this study, through interviews, social media discussions, or informal 
        conversations. 
         
        I would also like to express many thanks to my friends, especially my fellow graduate 
        students from the Universities of Toronto and Ottawa, who have left me with countless 
        laughter-filled memories of graduate life. 
         
        Last of all, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my supportive family. I am 
        especially grateful to both my Mom and my partner, Trevor, for their love and support. I also 
        cannot overstate the influential role of my Dad, for the immeasurable amount of time, advice, 
        and encouragement he has put into helping me become a better writer; I think I have finally 
        learned how to stop writing in the passive voice. To them I dedicate this thesis. 
                             iv