Changing Habits? Food, family and transitions to motherhood

Apples

Principal Investigator:

Helen Stapleton (Midwifery and Children´s Nursing); Amanda Wade (Sociological Studies)

Researcher:

Julia Keenan

Aims and objectives:

On-going debates in contemporary western societies about the growing obesity `epidemic´ ascribe food/eating practices with a heavier moral `weighting´, particularly within family settings. This study explores the ways in which food and eating practices are manifested and negotiated within diverse and dynamic families, including those where women may have pre-existing concerns about food and body shape.

The study will focus on two significant stages in the life cycle: that of pregnancy and the transition to parenthood amongst first-time mothers, and the transition from infancy to early childhood. Early family formation, and the subsequent addition of a new member(s) to the social group, are times of upheaval when family processes, attitudes, and expectations, for example concerning food choices and eating practices, may be examined and revised.

This study will seek to identify whether, and to what degree, maternal understandings about food and related issues are transmitted to children; and the extent to which these are influenced by agents such as partners, children, other family members and outside influences such as health and allied professionals. The perceptions of women are central to the study aims because foetal well-being, and indeed health outcomes throughout the life-course, are increasingly linked with pregnancy-related behaviours and because women-as-mothers are usually the primary carers within the family domain.

Research questions:

We aim to investigate how mothers´ experiences and understandings of food and eating practices play out in their food relationships with newborn infants and young children.

  • What understandings do pregnant women and mothers of young children articulate in relation to food and eating practices?
  • How are these understandings influenced by women’s concerns about food, body shape and concepts of ‘good’ parenting?
  • How are the food preferences of infants and children expressed, and how do they influence family practices and relationships?
  • How are food related behaviours and eating practices negotiated within different family contexts and within families following a range of dietary customs and practices?

Research design:

This will be a qualitative study, utilising in-depth, semi-structured interviews. A longitudinal element has been included, supplemented by participatory visual methods (photo-elicitation), to emphasize the processual nature of childrearing.

Two groups of women (n= 60) will be recruited, half of whom will be pregnant and anticipating the experience of first-time motherhood at the point of entry to the study.

  • The first group (Cohort 1, n=30) will be pregnant at the time of recruitment and will be followed until the baby is about nine months old to enable longitudinal data collection. Three contacts will be made with each participant during this period for the purpose of undertaking in-depth interviews (n=90).
  • The second group (Cohort 2, n=30) will be comprised of women who have at least one child aged between nine months and two years. These participants will be interviewed at one point in time only.

A total of 120 in-depth interviews will thus be undertaken across the two cohorts. Ten women from each of the following three groups will be recruited to each cohort:

  1. women who are obese/overweight
  2. women who have been diagnosed with Type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes
  3. women who self define as ‘normal weight’ and who do not define themselves as engaging in disordered eating practices

Representation will be sought from a variety of family forms (e.g. single-parent, married, co-habiting) and families of different socio-economic status and ethnicity.