This thesis examines the construction and action of food evaluations in mealtime conversation. It takes a social constructionist approach to eating, arguing that `talking food' is inseparable from, and thus constructive of, the practices around food and drink consumption. This challenges current psychological thinking on eating, which is typically based on a cognitive-experimental model of attitudes and intentions to eat. I argue that this does not adequately take into account the social nature of food and the way in which food and eating is embedded in everyday interaction. The thesis examines instances of family mealtimes, as a way of looking at food in interaction. Data is taken from the tape-recorded conversations during these interactions. Conversation analytic and discursive psychological approaches were used to analyse the data corpus, with a focus on participants' usage of food and drink evaluations. These evaluations were examined as part of the situated activities of the meal such as offering or requesting food, and justifying eating habits. The analysis looks at different types of food evaluations: those that are associatedw ith the food and those associated with the person evaluating the food. These types are seen to be specific to either items or categories of food, and are rhetorically designed to counter challenges. Finally, the analysis considers how embodied eating sensations such as `gustatory pleasure' are constructed through evaluative expressions. It is argued that food and drink evaluations cannot be treated as separate mental or physical states (such as food attitudes or preferences) as they are bound up with the structure of interaction at the micro-level of speaker turn organisation. Instead, food evaluations can be regarded as part of, and as constructing, the practice of eating as well as contributing to our notions of food sensations and individual taste. The analysis and approach taken in this thesis therefore suggest that we need to reconceptualise eating and consumption in terms of discursive activities in interaction.

Frequency of family mealtimes has been positively linked to dietary quality and weight status in children; however, there is a lack of research identifying what components of family mealtimes are associated with this positive effect. This study investigated family mealtime components that may impact dietary intake and weight status in children aged 5-11 years. Participants were 50 parent/child pairs (child: age = 7.3 ± 2.0 years, female = 44%, standardized body mass index (zBMI) = 0.55 ± 1.0, overweight/obese = 26.0%; parent: age = 36.8 ± 8.7 years, female = 76%, BMI = 29.0 ± 6.6 kg/m2, overweight/obese = 74.0%) recruited at local doctors’ offices, churches, and a daycare for this cross-sectional study. Children were weighed and measured while parents completed questionnaires on child dietary quality and family mealtimes. The family mealtime questionnaire assessed six mealtime components: which meal, who was present, what type of food was served and eaten, where the food in the meal was prepared and/or eaten, how food was served, and the atmosphere of the meal. Barriers to family mealtimes were also assessed. Parents reported that children’s daily servings consumed were: fruit = 2.1 ± 0.9; vegetables = 2.3 ± 1.1; low-fat dairy = 2.1 ± 1.3; sweetened drinks = 1.5 ± 1.6; and 100% fruit juice = 1.8 ± 1.3. Hierarchical regressions, with child and parent demographics controlled, found that greater frequency of dinner consumed at a restaurant/fast food establishment and limiting the child from eating too much were significantly (p < 0.001) related to greater sweetened drink intake. Not answering the phone or texting during the family meal was significantly (p < 0.05) related to lower fast food frequency. Limiting the child from eating too much was significantly (p < 0.01) related to greater child zBMI. This suggests that family mealtimes eaten within the home, free of distractions, and with set rules may impact on child dietary intake and weight status. Experimental studies are needed to understand the potential cause and effect relationships between these variables.

This study applied conversation analysis for the first time to episodes in which children express pain and bodily sensations in the everyday setting of family mealtimes. It focuses on the components of children s expressions, the character of parents responses, and how the sequence is resolved. Three families who had a child with a long term health condition were recruited through voluntary support groups and agreed to film 15-17 mealtimes. In total 47 mealtimes were recorded totalling 23 hours of data. Each family had two children aged 15 months to nine years and included a heterosexual married couple. This data was supplemented by archives in the Discourse and Rhetoric Group: a further nine hours of mealtime recordings by two families each with two children aged three to seven years. The analysis describes four key components of children s expressions of bodily sensation and pain: lexical formulations; prosodic features; pain cries and embodied actions, revealing the way in which they can be built together to display different aspects of the experience. The results highlight the nature of these expressions as initiating actions designed in and for interaction. An examination of the sequence that follows demonstrates the negotiated character of pain. Descriptions of the nature of the child s pain and its authenticity are produced, amended, resisted or accepted in the turns that follow. During these sequences participant orientations reveal the pervasive relevance of eating related tasks that characterises mealtime interaction. The discussion concludes by describing the unique insights into the negotiated rather than private nature of a child s pain demonstrated by this study, and the way in which pain can be understood as produced and dealt with as part of the colourful tapestry of everyday family life in which everyday tasks are achieved, knowledge and authority is claimed and participants are positioned in terms of their relationship to one another.