Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 57, Issue 1, August 2011, Pages 220-228
Appetite

Research report
It's who I am and what we eat. Mothers’ food-related identities in family food choice

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2011.04.025Get rights and content

Abstract

This study aimed to understand mothers’ everyday food choices using one type of visual method-participant-driven photo-elicitation (PDPE). The sample consisted of 12 low/moderate income mothers (26–53 years) living in Bryan/College Station, Texas. Each mother completed a photography activity, where she created photographs of her food experience, and an in-depth interview using the mother's photographs. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach and coded using qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti. Mothers emphasized their identities related to food and eating as they described food-related decisions and activities. These identities influenced a mother's food choices for herself and those she made for her children. Analysis revealed that mothers with a more defined health identity made healthier choices for themselves and similar food choices for their children. In addition, they exhibited behaviors that positively influenced their children's food choices. Mothers who struggled to see themselves as healthy indulged with more junk food and indicated feelings of anxiety and guilt; these mothers’ food choices were more disconnected from their children's. These findings underscore the importance of understanding how identities related to food and eating can influence food choices. Encouraging mothers to develop and maintain health identities may be one way to improve food and eating habits in families.

Highlights

► Focused on mothers’ food choices using participant-driven photo-elicitation. ► Salient identities were related to food preferences, health, and being a mother. ► Identities present in behaviors that influenced children's food choices. ► Differences observed in behaviors related to having more defined health identity.

Introduction

This study employed a grounded theory approach with photo-elicitation to broadly understand how mothers approach food choice. Grounded theory employs “systematic yet flexible guidelines” throughout the research project and uses qualitative data to “construct theories ‘grounded’ in the data themselves” (Charmaz, 2006). This approach was selected to understand routine food decisions and activities from the participants’ perspectives. We conducted photo-elicitation interviews with 12 low/moderate-income mothers living in Central Texas. While analyzing interview transcripts, we discovered that mothers’ food-related identities were most salient in her food choices and behaviors that influenced her children's food choices. Identities related to food and eating included participants’ characterization of their food and eating habits. Bisogni and colleagues created a theoretical framework describing identities related to eating, and their model was used for framing the results of this analysis (2002). This paper expands on their work by using a diverse sample of mothers and photo-elicitation to understand how those identities are enacted in mothers’ everyday food choices for herself and her children.

Section snippets

Background

Mothers are a primary influence on their children's diet and health. Prior work indicates a relationship between mothers’ health and nutrition knowledge and children's dietary intake; specifically, mothers’ with more knowledge were associated with children who had lower intakes of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium and higher intakes of fiber (Variyam, Blaylock, Lin, Ralston, & Smallwood, 1999). Mothers can influence their children's diet by providing certain foods in the home, and through

Approach

A grounded theory approach was used for this qualitative project from conceptualization and to data collection and analysis (Charmaz, 2006, Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Grounded theory methods involve “systematic yet flexible guidelines” throughout the research project; these methods typically use qualitative data to “construct theories ‘grounded’ in the data themselves” (Charmaz, 2006). This approach centers on data, studies events and experiences occurring in the data, and uses the data to

Participants’ characteristics

Table 1 presents participant characteristics of the 12 mothers. Mothers were middle-age, low/moderate income women with at least one child under the age of 18 years living in the same household. Average age of the mothers was about 37 years (range: 26–53 years). The sample was diverse, with mothers self-describing race/ethnicity as non-Hispanic white (42%, n = 5), Hispanic (42%, n = 5), and African-American (17%, n = 2). Two of the five Hispanic participants were Spanish-speakers. Most participants

Discussion

Overall, these results extend the work of Bisogni and colleagues (Blake and Bisogni, 2003, Bisogni et al., 2002) and are consistent with the Food Choice Process Model (Furst, Connors, Bisogni, Sobal, & Falk, 1996). Research confirms that different types of identities related to food and eating, personal characteristics (e.g., health and body image), and social categories (e.g., cultural background and being a mother) are enacted in food choice (Bisogni et al., 2002). This analysis provides

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