Table 4 Supporting quotes from family focus groups

 Sub-heading

Supporting quotes

a) Children trying to convey what FRESH was to parents

“I guess because you did it in assemblies, I wasn’t sure what he was going on about. It wasn’t till [J – a mother of a participating family] had obviously been in touch with you that we found out more. But going back to the whole thing of trying to then explain [FRESH], if the kids cannot do it, it becomes sort of Chinese whispers between the parents, does not it?” [Mother 7, family arm].

b) Participation would be time consuming

“I think people have misconceptions… I think they just heard the words research project and thought, ‘oh no, we are going to have to do a load of stuff’… but you do not have to do anything, just wearing this [pedometer] and going about what I do normally and log on the website every night or a couple of times a week and have a look at how we are doing. I did not think it was a hassle at all.” [Father 5, child-only arm].

c) Lack of confidence for physical activity

“Exercise is a funny thing, you know... Like if they are overweight or they do not eat healthy… they may think they are being judged by it and actually they are not being judged by it at all. That’s not what this was about... but there’s a fear factor when it comes to exercise for some people…. And given that I think obesity levels are pretty high around here for the national average, I think West Norfolk’s one of the fatter areas, people may be a bit... I do not know, possibly there was lack of confidence about signing up to something like this.” [Mother 5, child-only arm].

d) Reluctance to being measured

“It was the measurements, I would’ve done the other stuff… I think with some people that just puts you off straightaway. I think it did for me… I was like ‘no, I do not want to do that’ and I am sure others felt the same. Luckily [I - Father] did not mind because she really wanted to do this.” [Mother 12, family arm].

 Sub-heading

Supporting quotes

e) Feasibility and acceptability of FRESH

“Definitely more aware, I underlined that [on the process evaluation questionnaire] because I think in terms of our awareness, it has made us a lot more aware of the steps that we are doing. I really, really liked that, for me that has been the best thing.” [Father 6, family arm].

“…you [speaking about index child] wanted to walk more did not you, like if we were going to nursery you were like, ‘can I walk because I want to get more steps.’ I noticed that on a few things, whereas before she would have been like, ‘oh, can we go in the car?’” [Mother 12, family arm].

“I do think if you’d given step counters to everyone in the family it gives us more onus to do it. Once you’d gone, it was all about him and no one else in the family, I felt like I’d done my bit and it was all down to just him and his step counter; whereas, if I’d have had a step counter… for the 6 weeks I probably would have been more aware about how active I was, and not necessarily competed with you, but just the fact that I had my own one to keep an eye on how active I’d been, then I’d have probably felt more involved.” [Father 8, child-only arm].

f) Family time

“We would actually compare on a daily basis… we’d be like ‘who’s done the most steps today?’ and you know, ‘oh, you have done more than you normally do, [B – index child]’ or ‘you have done less then you normally do.’ So, we were able gauge, ‘oh, it’s been a slow day, why has been it slow day? What have you been doing at school today?” [Father 6, family arm].

“We had the planner out the whole time in the kitchen, so it was easier to fill in. [B – index child] was involved with it because, at the end of the day, I would say,’ have you written your log?’ And before bed she would have a look and she would write her number down and [Father] and I would shout our numbers to her and say, ‘oh this is mine, put mine in.’” [Mother 6, family arm].

g) FRESH website

“We pretty much just went on [the website] to log [steps]… I think we found that hardest thing, we would fall out over whose going to log [on the website]… so that wasn’t that helpful for the family dynamic (laughs).” [Father 6, family arm].

“Well I’d like to have a leaderboard, that shows everyone doing it and it says, ‘you have got to beat this person and their name’, like it says on my football game.” [Boy 5, child-only arm]. “Yeah, a family one would be good. That would spur us all on would it not! It would spur us all on massively, yeah.” [Father 5, child-only arm].

h) Rewards

“He enjoyed that [virtual badges], but… maybe do a certificate or stickers or something, you know, even if you posted one to them, so they receive the post and we could be like ‘oh yeah, look what you have done!’ and… especially if you named it to them personally, so they actually got the physical post… ‘I have got a letter, I get to open that, wow, got my certificate in it!” [Mother 3, family arm].