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Employed parents' satisfaction with food choice coping strategies: influence of gender and household structure
Author(s) -
Blake Christine E,
Devine Carol M.,
Wethington Elaine,
Jastran Margaret,
Farrell Tracy J.,
Bisogni Carole A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.737.13
Subject(s) - psychology , spillover effect , coping (psychology) , work (physics) , social psychology , population , food choice , qualitative research , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , environmental health , sociology , economics , mechanical engineering , social science , engineering , microeconomics , pathology
The need to integrate work and family demands has implications for the food choices of employed parents. This study aimed to understand parents' satisfaction with the ways they integrated work‐family demands to manage food and eating. Employed, low/moderate‐wage, urban, U.S., Black, White, and Latino mothers (35) and fathers (34) participated in qualitative interviews exploring work and family conditions and spillover, food roles, and food‐choice coping and family‐adaptive strategies. Ten evaluative categories emerged, based on parents' satisfaction with their ability to enact preferred food roles as they attempted to integrate work and family demands. Conditions that contributed to parents' evaluations differed by gender. Mothers based their evaluations on their ability to achieve balance between work and family, while managing traditionally maternal food roles. Fathers based their evaluations on their ability to achieve stability in routines and schedules and participate in family meals, while meeting expectations to contribute to food preparation. The findings support intersecting economic and gender explanations for differences in household‐level strategies and adaptations used to integrate work and family demands. These findings have implications for understanding other aspects of work‐family spillover and for workplace and family policies affecting a vulnerable population.