Mothers and meals. The effects of mothers' meal planning and shopping motivations on children's participation in family meals

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • William Alex McIntosh
  • Karen S. Kubena
  • Glen Tolle
  • Dean, Wesley
  • Jie sheng Jan
  • Jenna Anding

Participation in family meals has been associated with benefits for health and social development of children. The objective of the study was to identify the impact of mothers' work of caring through planning regularly scheduled meals, shopping and cooking, on children's participation in family meals. Parents of children aged 9-11 or 13-15 years from 300 Houston families were surveyed about parents' work, meal planning for and scheduling of meals, motivations for food purchases, importance of family meals, and children's frequency of eating dinner with their families. The children were interviewed about the importance of eating family meals. Hypotheses were tested using path analysis to calculate indirect and total effects of variables on the outcome variable of frequency of children eating dinner with their family. Mothers' belief in the importance of family meals increased likelihood of children eating dinner with families by increasing likelihood that mothers planned dinner and that dinners were regularly scheduled. Mothers' perception of time pressures on meal preparation had a negative, indirect effect on the frequency of children's participation in family dinners by reducing mothers' meal planning.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAppetite
Volume55
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)623-628
Number of pages6
ISSN0195-6663
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Family meals, Family ritual, Meal planning, Mothers, Work of caring

ID: 255456985