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Poverty and Food Insecurity Predict Mealtime Structure: Mediating Pathways of Parent Disciplinary Practices and Depressive Symptoms

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Abstract

Structured, well-organized mealtime routines can provide physical and mental health benefits for children. Poverty and food insecurity (FI) are risk factors for less effective mealtime routines. However, the specific mechanisms by which these social factors may negatively impact mealtime structure are not well-understood. We test whether poverty and FI are associated with parenting factors (mental health and parent disciplinary practices), and whether parenting factors in turn associate with less mealtime structure. Low-income families (N = 270), recruited when children were 6-years-old (wave 1), were followed for 2 years (wave 2). Poverty, FI, and parenting factors were assessed at W1 via parent-report. Associations of poverty and FI with two measures of mealtime structure (parent-reported and observed mealtime structure at wave 1 and wave 2), mediated by parent factors (depressive symptoms, lax and overreactive parent disciplinary practices) were assessed in separate path analyses. The association between higher depth of poverty and less mealtime structure in early childhood was mediated by greater parent depressive symptoms. FI was associated with less mealtime structure in early childhood, mediated by overreactive parenting, and with less mealtime structure in early and mid-childhood, mediated by lax parenting. Poverty and food insecurity may contribute to suboptimal parent disciplinary practices and poor parent mental health, which may reduce mealtime structure for children. Addressing parent mental health and parent disciplinary practices in the context of poverty and FI, accounting for the role of public nutrition assistance programs, may be one way in which interventions can improve mealtime structure for low-income families.

Highlights

  • Higher household poverty and food insecurity were associated with lower mealtime structure.

  • Depressive symptoms mediated the association between poverty and mealtime structure.

  • Parenting discipline styles mediated the association between FI and mealtime structure.

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Acknowledgements

Support for this study was provided in part by NIH: NIDDK 1RC1DK086376, NICHD R01HD061356, and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant #74726). The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, College of Public Health, Temple University, 1301 Cecil B. Moore Ave, Ritter Annex 549, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Brittany R. Schuler

  2. Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Katherine W. Bauer & Julie C. Lumeng

  3. Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Julie C. Lumeng

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Katherine Rosenblum

  5. Consulting for Statistics, Computing, and Analytics Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Michael Clark

  6. Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Alison L. Miller

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  1. Brittany R. Schuler
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Schuler, B.R., Bauer, K.W., Lumeng, J.C. et al. Poverty and Food Insecurity Predict Mealtime Structure: Mediating Pathways of Parent Disciplinary Practices and Depressive Symptoms. J Child Fam Stud 29, 3169–3183 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01806-1

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