PRIVATE DINNERS, PUBLIC FAMILIES:LOW-INCOME MOTHERS’ ACCOUNTS OF FAMILY FOODWORK

[摘要] While diet-related chronic diseases disproportionally affect poor and minority populations in the United States, available data also show that not all low-income individuals in communities with limited access to healthful foods have low-quality diets and poor health. To solve this puzzle and improve the development of policies and programs that reduce health disparities, an in-depth understanding of why equally disadvantaged mothers engage in markedly different food behaviors is needed. This dissertation investigates how social inequality produces health disparities by examining low-income mothers’ accounts of family foodwork. The analyses in this dissertation focus on the interactions between individual social actors and the structural constraints they encounter in carrying out the work of family feeding.Four bodies of existing theory form the theoretical foundation of this dissertation: consumption and dignity, the life course perspective, fundamental cause of disease theory, and household production theory. Data for this study come from two distinct sources that use qualitative methods to gather details about everyday life of families living in poverty. The first data source is the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study, the second is the Baltimore Family Foodwork Study. Primary and secondary qualitative data from these sources are combined in the analysis. The following findings from this dissertation broaden our understanding of how social inequality, in addition to financial poverty, produces health disparities throughout the life course. First, while low-income mothers are generally aware of healthy eating principles, social consumption expectations play an important role in shaping their actual food choices, which may go against healthy eating principle. Second, childhood family experiences have lasting effects on family food practices across generations; the negative consequences of abuse during childhood, which can lead to wide range of risky health behaviors, also influence how mothers monitor family nutrition. Third, time scarcity is an important yet neglected issue in current discussions about diet and health disparities. Fourth, mothers’ narratives of their food procurement practices reveal that the notion of ;;food desert” does not fully capture the complexity of food access challenges in low-income communities. The conclusion discusses policy and practice implications for those working to improve the health of low-income families.

[发布机构] Johns Hopkins University

[效力级别] Foodwork

[关键词] Family;Foodwork;Poverty;Sociology