Peer communication and the pressure to snack

There have a been a couple articles in the last couple weeks in The New York Times about snacking, including this Well blog article earlier this week about a recent article in Health Affairs. What I found interesting about these articles is not the data about how much children and adults snack, but the personal stories about parents who feel pressure to comply with the snacking culture. Parents may try to speak up about the endless supply of snacks at club meetings, soccer games and school, but may quickly retreat from the position when ridiculed or scorned by other parents. The stories give dramatic insight into how interpersonal and group communication impact health behaviors. As health care providers and health communicators create messages about health behaviors, they have to keep in mind the influence of peer groups. Otherwise, the messages, no matter how well crafted, may fall of deaf ears.