Maternal work and children's diet, activity, and obesity.
Mothers' work hours are likely to affect their time allocation towards activities related to children's diet, activity and well-being. For example, mothers who work more may be more reliant on processed foods, foods prepared away from home and school meal programs for their children's meals. A greater number of work hours may also lead to more unsupervised time for children that may, in turn, allow for an increase in unhealthy behaviors among their children such as snacking and sedentary activities such as TV watching. Using data on a national cohort of children, we examine the relationship between mothers' average weekly work hours during their children's school years on children's dietary and activity behaviors, BMI and obesity in 5th and 8th grade. Our results are consistent with findings from the literature that maternal work hours are positively associated with children's BMI and obesity especially among children with higher socioeconomic status. Unlike previous papers, our detailed data on children's behaviors allow us to speak directly to affected behaviors that may contribute to the increased BMI. We show that children whose mothers work more consume more unhealthy foods (e.g. soda, fast food) and less healthy foods (e.g. fruits, vegetables, milk) and watch more television. Although they report being slightly more physically active, likely due to organized physical activities, the BMI and obesity results suggest that the deterioration in diet and increase in sedentary behaviors dominate.
Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR), University of Southern California, 12025 E Waterfront Drive, Playa Vista, CA 90094, USA. Electronic address: adatar@usc.edu.
Ashlesha
A
Datar
RAND Corporation, 20 Park Plaza, 9th Floor, Suite 920, Boston, MA 02116, USA. Electronic address: nicosia@rand.org.
Nancy
N
Nicosia
Pardee RAND Graduate School, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA. Electronic address: vshier@rand.org.
Victoria
V
Shier
D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009043:Motor Activity; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013690:Television / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014931:Women, Working / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
BMI; Childhood obesity; Diet; Maternal work hours; Physical activity; Sedentary behavior