From mothers to daughters: transgenerational food and diet communication in an underserved group

Journal of Cultural Diversity, Spring, 2004 by Diane Baer Wilson, Catherine Musham, Mary S. McLellan

Abstract: Studies show that young girls are highly influenced by their mothers' attitudes toward food and body image. To investigate the nature of the information about food that mothers transfer to their daughters, the researchers used focus groups comprising African American women. Results suggest that when educators work with low-income African American women, they should be cognizant of overeating from the perspectives of early food scarcity, reverence for the mother's authoritative role in the family and respect for cultural differences in body size norms. In addition, nutrition educators should counsel young mothers to understand the impact of their eating habits on their daughters.

Key Words: African American women, eating patterns, role modeling, mother-daughter food communication, body size norms, nutrition education for the underserved

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In American society, mothers typically educate children about food and nutrition, despite changes to traditional sex roles, such as the increasing number of women in the out-of-home working population (Anliker, Laus, Samonds, & Beal, 1990; Cutting, Fisher, Grimm-Thomas, & Birch, 1999; Birch & Fisher, 1997). In keeping with sex-role expectations, mothers are more likely to serve as food role models for their daughters than their sons, and as adults, females are more likely to make food and diet decisions for their families. Women continue to play the lead role in food shopping and preparation in most families. Within the family, communication from mother to daughter about food could be described as an educational process, both in the sense of direct information (" this is what you should eat ) as well as role-modeling ("this is how I eat").

Recent studies substantively document mothers' role modeling as a significant predictor of daughters' food attitudes, dieting behavior and body size norms (Abramovitz & Birch, 2000; Hill & Franklin, 1998; Birch & Fisher, 2000). In effect, transgenerational communication from mother to daughter greatly influences the eating norms of both mainstream and non-mainstream American groups.

Dieting and health are directly related, of course. Even so, although more and more chronic diseases are linked to obesity, obesity has become a national epidemic in the US. Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI)--a ratio of height and weight--greater than or equal to 30, and overweight is a BMI of 25 to 29.9 (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). According to this standard, some 68 million Americans are now overweight, and obesity has increased 74% since 1991 (Mokdad et al., 2003). Historically, the share of obese African American women has been higher than other race or gender groups, and this continues to be the case (Mokdad et al., 2000). Therefore, in light of the role mothers play in food and diet habit formation, learning about the way in which African American females adopt food and diet behaviors would entail studying the mother-daughter role in establishing food and diet behaviors.

Research cites poor eating habits among the underserved population as a main factor in disease prevalence among those with low economic status m the U.S. For example, African Americans are significantly more likely than Caucasians to suffer from hypertension and diabetes, two diseases in which diet plays a major role in etiology and management (Brownson, Remington, & Davis, 1998). This trend becomes critical given the rapid growth of low-income and minority populations in the U.S., suggesting the need to better understand the content and mechanisms involved in transgenerational food communication among underserved and culturally diverse populations.

The maternal influence on food behavior norms may be even stronger in low-income groups who have limited exposure to the diet and nutrition information contained in magazines, books and other sources aimed toward the mainstream middle class. To help low-income African American mothers understand how they influence their daughters' food consumption habits, health educators and nutritionists must design effective interventions, including those which shed light on culturally based norms, such as the documented preference for larger female body size among African Americans (Wilson, Sargent, & Dias, 1994; Akan & Grilo, 1995; Rodin, 1993). The researchers designed this study to explore the nature of mother-daughter communication about food in a group of low-income African American women. The study examines three key issues: (1) the content of food information conveyed by mothers, (2) the mechanisms through which this information is conveyed and (3) the influence of this information on adult diet beliefs and behaviors. The overall purpose of this study is to define criteria that will allow diet and nutrition educators to tailor their campaigns to younger and older low-income African American women.

METHOD

The researchers employed a focus group technique to elicit the relevant data from the research subjects. The researchers chose four groups of African American women ranging from 25 to 65 years of age: two groups with women aged 25 to 45 years, and two with women aged 46 to 65 years.