Navigating the neighbourhood: A qualitative study of parents’ perceptions of the food environment in Rotterdam

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Families living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy food outlets. Yet less is known about how families perceive and navigate these local food environments in everyday life. Parents play a key intermediary role in translating neighbourhood food environments into family food purchasing decisions. As such, this qualitative study explored how parents of children aged 8 to 10 years perceive and experience their neighbourhood food environment in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents from socioeconomically diverse neighbourhoods. Data were analysed inductively using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Two overarching themes conceptualised parents' engagement with the food environment as a relational and adaptive process, whereby "perceiving the neighbourhood food environment" was continually recalibrated through parents' "use of the food environment in everyday life". Perceptions were shaped by what felt available, acceptable, and accessible, extending to digital food retail and influenced by community norms and safety. These perceptions were recalibrated as families actively engaged with their food environment through planning grocery shopping, navigating in-store trade-offs between price, quality and health or environmental values, and outsourcing meals for time management or enjoyment. Experiences of using the food environment, in turn, reshaped perceptions, forming a dynamic perceive-use-recalibrate feedback loop. Public health interventions should address both neighbourhood and consumer food environments, combining urban planning with strategies attuned to how families perceive and navigate food choices in everyday life.