Many studies indicate that children in middle-class families have healthier eating habits than children in lower class families.
Class differences in food rules, which parents and especially mothers impose on their children, may underlie these social inequalities in food consumption.
The present study uses education as a classifying variable and analyses whether mothers with higher education prescribe more healthy'foodstuffs for their children and whether they restrict more unhealthy'food items than less educated mothers.
Moreover, the study examines whether higher class mothers consider health aspects more often and the preferences of their family members less often in their choice of food. and whether class differences in these considerations explain class differences in food rules.
To answer these questions, questionnaires on the food practices of 849 women living in middle-class or lower class districts in Maastricht (the Netherlands), Liège (Belgium) and Aachen (Germany) were collected and analysed.
The majority of mothers in each city prescribed primarily foods that0 were served at dinner like meat and vegetables, and most mothers limited their children's consumption of sweet foods, soft drinks and snacks.
Higher class mothers restricted more foods, but prescribed as many food items as their lower class counterparts.
Class differences in the number of restricted foods were partly, but not completely. (...)
Mots-clés Pascal : Régime alimentaire, Comportement alimentaire, Classe sociale, Aspect culturel, Mère, Enfant, Homme, Etude multicentrique, Pays Bas, Europe, Belgique, Allemagne
Mots-clés Pascal anglais : Diet, Feeding behavior, Social class, Cultural aspect, Mother, Child, Human, Multicenter study, Netherlands, Europe, Belgium, Germany
Notice produite par :
Inist-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique
Cote : 98-0478214
Code Inist : 002B30A02A. Création : 19/02/1999.