Parents’ attitudes and beliefs influencing food provision provide a promising new avenue for obesity prevention through reducing children’s intake of unhealthy foods and beverages. There is a need to understand the relative importance of different parental attitudes and beliefs in influencing their provision, hence this study aimed to explore the relationships between parents’ attitudes and beliefs, and parents’ intention and children’s intake of unhealthy foods. Parents (n=162) with children aged 4-7years completed an online self-reported questionnaire providing data on parents’ attitudes and beliefs (predictor variables) based on the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) model, child and parent demographics and potential confounders. The HAPA model, based on socio-cognitive theory, consists of 2 phases (motivational and volitional) and includes constructs of risk perception, outcome expectancies, self-efficacy and planning for behaviour change. Multiple linear regression analyses, adjusting for all other predictors and confounders, were conducted on the HAPA motivational phase (outcome variable parent’s intention) and volitional phase (outcome variable children’s intake of unhealthy foods). In the motivational phase, parents’ action self-efficacy (β 0.319, p<0.05) and risk perception for their child (β 0.185, p<0.05) had the strongest association with parents’ intention to limit provision of unhealthy foods. In the volitional phase, parents’ maintenance self-efficacy (β -0.297, p<0.05) had the strongest association with children’s intake of unhealthy foods. Motivation or intention alone are unlikely to achieve change in parental food provision behaviour. The application of the HAPA theoretical framework may explain the disparity between parents’ unhealthy food provision intentions and behaviours. Initial exploration of parents’ attitudes and beliefs highlight self-efficacy as an important target for interventions to support parents’ to change provision behaviour. Further research is needed using HAPA model to develop evidence-based interventions to support parents’ to limit provision of unhealthy foods, hence improve energy balance and prevent obesity from an early age.