PARENTAL STRESSORS AND CHILD FEEDING STRATEGIES WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR CHILD WEIGHT STATUS

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1000641
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2013
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2016
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
ITHACA,NY 14853

Performing Department
Nutritional Sciences

Non Technical Summary
We address a challenge for employed parents in the United States: promoting healthful child nutrition and body weight despite chronic and acute stressors from demanding work and family roles. Long work hours, widespread work/family strain, schedule inflexibility, fewer family meals at home, poor nutritional quality of meals outside the home, and a high prevalence of overweight and obesity among parents and children, make this real-world problem of great importance for nutrition and health, especially among low-income families who may lack access to effective coping resources. Our group has demonstrated associations between demanding work and family conditions, family food choice coping strategies, and poor parental dietary quality. Here we expand on this research to examine how parental stressors relate to child feeding practices and weight status. The study will investigate relationships between chronic stressors and disruptive daily hassles, child feeding strategies, child diet, and child height and weight status compared to growth standards among parents of preschool children through open ended qualitative interviews with parents and a 3-day telephone diary study.

Animal Health Component

100%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

100%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
703	6020	1010	100%

Knowledge Area
703 - Nutrition Education and Behavior;

Subject Of Investigation
6020 - The family and its members;

Field Of Science
1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;

Keywords

preschool child nutrition

parental stressors

child feeding

Goals / Objectives
The research objective is to investigate relationships between chronic stressors and disruptive daily hassles, child feeding strategies, child diet, and child height and weight status compared to growth standards among parents of preschool children. To reach this objective, we will address the following specific aims: Aim 1. To understand how low income employed parents of preschool children experience the relationship of chronic stressors and daily hassles to their child feeding strategies and their children's diets and weight, we will conduct qualitative interviews with parents. Aim 2. To evaluate quantitatively the relationships between chronic stressors and daily hassles, child feeding strategies, child diet and weight among low-income parents of preschool children, we will follow the initial qualitative interviews with a three-day telephone diary study with the same parents.

Project Methods
Design Overview The study design consists of engaging two cohorts (Cohort 1 in Year 1 and Cohort 2 in Year 2) of 15 study participants each in both qualitative and quantitative phases of the research, each building on the previous phase. Qualitative face-to-face interviews will enable understanding of how employed parents of preschool children experience and integrate the impact of chronic and daily stressors into their approach to child feeding strategies, diet, and weight. The qualitative research will include in-depth interviews and data analysis based on the constant comparative method of qualitative data analysis (Strauss and Corbin 1998). The emergent findings of the qualitative research will be specified and incorporated into a new grounded conceptual framework, provide wording and expressions for development of measures of child feeding strategies that will inform the content of the telephone diary interviews to follow, and aid in the interpretation of the findings. Additional data will be collected at the end of the qualitative interviews in three areas: socio-demographic characteristics of parents, children, and households; chronic stressors; and household food choice coping strategies. These data will provide context for the qualitative interviews and will also serve as a source of independent variables for the analysis of the telephone diary data. A telephone diary study for evaluating the relationship of chronic stressors and daily hassles to child feeding strategies and dietary intake and weight status in a population of employed parents will follow two to three months after the qualitative interviews. We will conduct the three-day telephone diary study with the same parents who participated in the qualitative interviews.

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Low income parents of pre-school children. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Tara Agrawal Pedulla, participated in this study as part of her doctoral research. She earned her Doctoral degree in Nutritional Sciences in August 2016. Madeline Tchack, participated in this study as part of her honors thesis and graduated with a BS in Nutrition in May 2016. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Aim 1) 22 low income employed mothers of preschool children enrolled in the Head Start program were purposively recruited to participate in in-depth interviews to advance an understanding of work and family influences on the daily child feeding experiences of working and student mothers. Qualitative data analysis revealed 3 child feeding routine typologies that reflected work, family, childcare, and larger social contexts. Child feeding routines contained daily strategies of planning ahead, delegating to others, making trading offs, and coordinating with other activities. 19 of these mothers participated in second interviews describing multiple life changes over the intervening six to eight months, in job/school, living arrangements, childcare arrangements, and relationships. These life events were experienced as disruptions to mothers' existing ways of feeding their families and children that led these mothers to change their child feeding strategies. Mothers' appraisals of these events and resources affected their ability to successfully adapt to life events. These findings are reported in two papers, one submitted, and one in preparation for submission to peer reviewed journals. Aim 2) 79 low income employed mothers of preschool children enrolled in Head Start also participated in 2-day telephone diary interviews about daily hassles and child feeding strategies and completed two non-quantitative 24 hour dietary recalls. 72 of these completed both interviews. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three clusters of mothers differing in their child feeding strategies: eating with family; (2) delegating feeding; and (3) hectic eating. Clusters differed significantly on child feeding strategies, work characteristics, and children's food and beverage consumption. These findings, in a paper in preparation for submission, show how specific ecological characteristics provide a context for children's food and beverage consumption, particularly highlighting the need to assess a variety of settings and caregivers involved when evaluating young children's diets and the need for policies that support standard and predictable schedules among income parents.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2016 Citation: Agrawal Pedulla T, Devine CM. Farrell T, Wethington E. Doing Our Best to Keep a Routine:" How Low-Income Mothers Manage Child Feeding with Unpredictable Work and Family Schedules
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Agrawal Pedulla T, Farrell T, Wethington E, Devine C. "I`ve had to adjust...dinner is a little bit later:" Examining work and family disruptions on mothers` ways of caring for children Work Family Researchers Conference, Washington DC.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Agrawal Pedulla T, Farrell T, Wethington E, Devine C. Changes on Childrens Close Social Environments Disrupt Feeding Routines. The New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center Boston Childrens Hospital.

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Low income parents of pre-school children. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Tara Agrawal Pedulla, a doctoral student in Nutritional Sciences is participating in this study as part of her doctoral research. Madeline Tchack, a senior undergraduate student in Nutritional Sciences is participating in this study as part of her honors thesis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period we will submit the two papers from Aim 1 for publication, complete analysis of the Aim 2 data and write up in a third paper for publication.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Aim 1) 22 low income employed mothers of preschool children enrolled in the Head Start program were purposively recruited to participate in in-depth interviews to advance an understanding of work and family influences on the daily child feeding experiences of working and student mothers. Qualitative data analysis revealed 3 child feeding routine typologies that reflected work, family, childcare, and larger social contexts. Child feeding routines contained daily strategies of planning ahead, delegating to others, making trading offs, and coordinating with other activities. 19 of these mothers participated in second interviews describing multiple life changes over the intervening six to eight months, in job/school, living arrangements, childcare arrangements, and relationships. These life events were experienced as disruptions to mothers' existing ways of feeding their families and children that led these mothers to change their child feeding strategies. Mothers' appraisals of these events and resources affected their ability to successfully adapt to life events. These findings are summarized in two papers in preparation for submission. Aim 2) 79 low income employed mothers of preschool children enrolled in Head Start also participated in 2-day telephone diary interviews about daily hassles and child feeding strategies and completed two non-quantitative 24 hour dietary recalls. 72 of these completed both interviews. Data analysis is proceeding on these telephone diary interviews.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Agrawal Pedulla T, Farrell T, Wethington E, Devine C. Doing our best to keep a routine: how low-wage working mothers manage feeding their pre-school children in the face of the unpredictability of everyday life, International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Low income parents of pre-school children. Changes/Problems: Because we reached theoretical saturation in our year 1 qualitative interviews, we decided to recruit only a few more mothers for the qualitative study in year 2 (to include more single mothers living alone) and to re-distribute our resources to increase the sample for the telephone diary study in year 2. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Tara Agrawal Pedulla, a doctoral student in Nutritional Sciences is participating in this study as part of her doctoral research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? See other products. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? In the next reporting period, we will recruit and conduct 2 qualitative interviews with at least 3 more mothers of preschoolers to include more single mothers living alone in our qualitative sample. We have also revised and tested our telephone diary instrument and are currently recruiting a larger telephone sample to address Aim 2.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Aim 1 19 low income employed mothers of preschool children enrolled in the Head Start program were purposively recruited in a semi-rural county in Upstate New York. These mothers participated in a total of 36 qualitative interviews on child feeding strategies in the context of daily hassles and chronic stressors, one interview at the beginning and one at the end of the school year. Study participants worked or were enrolled in school 20 or more hours a week and worked in retail, health care, or other low wage jobs; more than 60% had irregular and/or unpredictable work schedules. Mothers varied in household structure and most received some type of food assistance. Preliminary data analysis revealed the emergence of two key patterns in mothers' child feeding strategies: continuity and disruptions in daily feeding routines and delegation of child feeding to other individuals, both inside and outside the household. The study findings emphasize the lack of schedule control that parental work schedules place on child food and feeding routines and the importance of delegates other than parents on the feeding of young children. Aim 2 The same low income employed mothers of preschool children enrolled in Head Start also participated in 3-day telephone diary interviews about daily hassles and child feeding strategies and completed two non-quantitative 24 hour dietary recalls for their children. Analysis of these data is on-going.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2014 Citation: Agrawal Pedulla, T., Devine C. Lives we choose to live: Linking employed mothers' daily schedules to daily routines for feeding children. American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. November 2014.