Full-Time Employment, Diet Quality, and Food Skills of Canadian Parents
Publication: Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research
7 February 2019
Abstract
Purpose: To explore the associations between full-time employment status, food skills, and diet quality of Canadian parents.
Methods: A sample of Canadian parents (n = 767) were invited to complete a web-based survey that included sociodemographic variables, questions about food skills, and a validated food frequency questionnaire. Results were analyzed with linear and logistic regression models, controlling for sociodemographic variables and multiple testing.
Results: After controlling for covariates and multiple testing, there were no statistically significant differences in foods skills between parents’ employment status. Time was the most reported barrier for meal preparation, regardless of work status, but was significantly greater for full-time compared with other employment status (P < 0.0001). Additionally, parents who worked full-time had lower odds of reporting food preferences or dietary restrictions (P = 0.0001) and health issues or allergies (P = 0.0003) as barriers to food preparation, compared with parents with other employment status. These results remained statistically significant even after controlling for covariates and multiple testing.
Conclusions: Overall, food skills did not differ significantly between parents’ employment status. Time, however, was an important barrier for most parents, especially those working full time. To promote home-based food preparation among parents, strategies to manage time scarcity are needed.
Résumé
Objectif. Explorer les associations entre une situation d’emploi à temps plein, les compétences alimentaires et la qualité de l’alimentation des parents canadiens.
Méthodes. Un échantillon de parents canadiens (n = 767) a été invité à répondre à un sondage Web comprenant des variables sociodémographiques, des questions sur les compétences alimentaires et un questionnaire de fréquence alimentaire validé. Les résultats ont été analysés au moyen de modèles de régression linéaire et logistique en tenant compte des variables sociodémographiques et des tests multiples.
Résultats. Après avoir tenu compte des covariables et des tests multiples, aucune différence statistiquement significative n’a été observée quant aux compétences alimentaires des parents en fonction de leur situation d’emploi. Le temps était l’obstacle à la préparation des repas le plus souvent mentionné, quelle que soit la situation d’emploi, mais il était considérablement plus important chez les personnes travaillant à temps plein comparativement aux personnes ayant une autre situation d’emploi (P < 0,0001). De plus, les parents qui travaillaient à temps plein avaient moins de chances d’indiquer que leurs préférences ou restrictions alimentaires (P = 0,0001) et leurs problèmes de santé ou leurs allergies (P = 0,0003) étaient des obstacles à la préparation des aliments, comparativement aux parents se trouvant dans une autre situation d’emploi. Ces résultats sont demeurés statistiquement significatifs même après avoir tenu compte des covariables et des tests multiples.
Conclusions. Dans l’ensemble, les compétences alimentaires des parents ne différaient pas de façon significative en fonction de leur situation d’emploi. Le temps était cependant un obstacle important pour la plupart des parents, surtout pour ceux qui travaillent à temps plein. Afin de favoriser la préparation des aliments à la maison par les parents, des stratégies pour les aider à gérer le manque de temps sont nécessaires.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Financial support: Data collection for this study was made possible through a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR); funding reference number GIR-127078. The funding agency did not have any role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, in the writing of the report and any decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Melissa Anne Fernandez is a CIHR Fellow; funding reference number MFE-152525.
Conflicts of interests: Melissa Anne Fernandez is the Associate Editor/French Editor of the Canadian Journal of Dietetics Practice and Research. All other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
References
1
Mills S, White M, Brown H, Wrieden W, Kwasnicka D, Halligan J, et al. Health and social determinants and outcomes of home cooking: a systematic review of observational studies. Appetite. 2017;111:116–134.
2
Bianchi SM, Milkie MA, Sayer LC, and Robinson JP. Is anyone doing the housework? Trends in the gender division of household labor. Soc. Forces. 2000;79(1):191–228.
3
Slater J, Sevenhuysen G, Edginton B, and O’Neil J. “Trying to make it all come together”: structuration and employed mothers’ experience of family food provisioning in Canada. Health Promot Int. 2012;27(3):405–415.
4
Mancino L, Newman C. Who has time to cook? How family resources influence food preparation. Washington, DC: Department of Agriculture/USDA; 2007.
5
Chesley N and Flood S. Signs of change? At-home and breadwinner parents’ housework and child-care time. J Marriage Fam. 2017;79(2):511–534.
6
Bianchi SM and Milkie MA. Work and family research in the first decade of the 21st century. J Marriage Fam. 2010;72(3):705–725.
7
Chenhall C. Improving cooking and food preparation skills: a synthesis of the evidence to inform program and policy development. Ottawa: Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada; 2010. p. 1–36.
8
Statistics Canada. Full-time and part-time employment by sex and age group. Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada; 2017.
9
Serecon Management Consulting Ltd. Canadian food trends to 2020—a long range consumer outlook. Ottawa, ON: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; 2005.
10
Braun J and Beckie M. Against the odds: the survival of traditional food knowledge in a rural Alberta community. Canadian Food Studies. 2014;1(1):54–71.
11
Moisio R, Arnould E, and Price L. Between mothers and markets. Journal of Consumer Culture. 2004;4(3):361–384.
12
Simmons D and Chapman GE. The significance of home cooking within families. Br Food J. 2012;114(8–9):1184–1195.
13
Halkier B. Normalising convenience food? Food Cult Soc. 2017;20(1):133–151.
14
Chu YL, Farmer A, Fung C, Kuhle S, Storey KE, and Veugelers PJ. Involvement in home meal preparation is associated with food preference and self-efficacy among Canadian children. Public Health Nutr. 2013;16(1):108–112.
15
Szabo M. The challenges of “re-engaging with food” connecting employment, household patterns and gender relations to convenience food consumption in North America. Food Cult Soc. 2011;14(4):547–566.
16
Moubarac JC, Batal M, Louzada ML, Martinez Steele E, and Monteiro CA. Consumption of ultra-processed foods predicts diet quality in Canada. Appetite. 2017;108:512–520.
17
McCloat A, Mooney E, and Hollywood LE. Have Irish parents put cooking on the back burner? An Island of Ireland study of the food skills, cooking confidence and practices of parents. Br Food J. 2017;119(5):992–1002.
18
Aube J and Marquis M. Attitudes and habits of Canadians in relation to planning and preparing meals at home. Can J Diet Pract Res. 2011;72(2):70–75.
19
Dwyer L, Oh A, Patrick H, and Hennessy E. Promoting family meals: a review of existing interventions and opportunities for future research. Adolesc Health Med Ther. 2015;6:115–31.
20
Labonté MÈ, Cyr A, Baril-Gravel L, Royer MM, and Lamarche B. Validity and reproducibility of a web-based, self-administered food frequency questionnaire. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012;66(2):166–173.
21
Dubois L, Girard M, and Bergeron N. The choice of a diet quality indicator to evaluate the nutritional health of populations. Public Health Nutr. 2000;3(3):357–65.
22
Slater J and Mudryj A. Self-perceived eating habits and food skills of Canadians. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2016;48(7):486–495.e1.
23
Slater J and Mudryj A. Nurturing future generations: household food practices of Canadian children and family meal participation. Can J Diet Pract Res. 2016;77(3):113–118.
24
Morin P, Demers K, Turcotte S, and Mongeau L. Association between perceived self-efficacy related to meal management and food coping strategies among working parents with preschool children. Appetite. 2013;65:43–50.
25
Azevedo Perry E, Thomas H, Samra HR, Edmonstone S, Davidson L, Faulkner A, et al. Identifying attributes of food literacy: a scoping review. Public Health Nutr. 2017;20(13):2406–2415.
26
Vidgen HA and Gallegos D. Defining food literacy and its components. Appetite. 2014;76:50–59.
27
Vanderkooy P. Food skills of Waterloo Region adults [PowerPoint presentation]. University of Ottawa Fireside Chats; 2010 [cited 2017 Mar 18]. Available from: www.chnet-works.ca.
28
Health Canada. Healthy eating and education awareness initiative: phase 3—healthy eating and healthy weights: a focus on food skills to support healthy eating and healthy weights. Ottawa, ON: Health Canada; 2013. p. 1–31.
29
Glickman ME, Rao SR, and Schultz MR. False discovery rate control is a recommended alternative to Bonferroni-type adjustments in health studies. J Clin Epidemiol. 2014;67(8):850–857.
30
Miller J, Chan L, Mehta K, Roberts R, Dickinson KM, Yaxley A, et al. Dietary intake of working women with children does not appear to be influenced by hours of employment: a secondary analysis of the Australian Health Survey (2011–2013). Appetite. 2016;105:106–113.
31
Howard A, Brichta J. What’s to eat? Improving food literacy in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Conference Board of Canada; 2013.
32
Wolfson JA and Bleich SN. Is cooking at home associated with better diet quality or weight-loss intention? Public Health Nutr. 2015;18(8):1397–1406.
33
Wang MC, Naidoo N, Ferzacca S, Reddy G, and Van Dam RM. The role of women in food provision and food choice decision-making in Singapore: a case study. Ecol Food Nutr. 2014;53(6):658–677.
34
Sliwa SA, Must A, Peréa F, and Economos CD. Maternal employment, acculturation, and time spent in food-related behaviors among Hispanic mothers in the United States. Evidence from the American Time Use Survey. Appetite. 2015;87:10–19.
35
Devine CM, Jastran M, Jabs J, Wethington E, Farell TJ, and Bisogni CA. “A lot of sacrifices”: work-family spillover and the food choice coping strategies of low-wage employed parents. Soc Sci Med. 2006;63(10):2591–2603.
36
Short F. Domestic cooking skills—what are they? Journal of the Home Economics Institute of Australia. 2003;10(3):13–22.
37
Jabs J and Devine CM. Time scarcity and food choices: an overview. Appetite. 2006;47:196–204.
38
Djupegot IL, Nenseth CB, Bere E, Bjornara HBT, Helland SH, Overby NC, et al. The association between time scarcity, sociodemographic correlates and consumption of ultra-processed foods among parents in Norway: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health. 2017;17:447.
39
Venn D and Strazdins L. Your money or your time? How both types of scarcity matter to physical activity and healthy eating. Soc Sci Med. 2017;172:98–106.
40
Jabs J, Devine CM, Bisogni CA, Farrell TJ, Jastran M, and Wethington E. Trying to find the quickest way: employed mothers’ constructions of time for food. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2007;39(1):18–25.
41
Strazdins L, Griffin AL, Broom DH, Banwell C, Korda R, Dixon J, et al. Time scarcity: another health inequality? Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. 2011;43(3):545–559.
42
Storfer-Isser A and Musher-Eizenman D. Measuring parent time scarcity and fatigue as barriers to meal planning and preparation: quantitative scale development. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2013;45(2):176–182.
Supplementary Material
File (cjdpr-2018-041suppla.docx)
- Download
- 39.40 KB
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research
Volume 80 • Number 2 • June 2019
Pages: 63 - 71
History
Version of record online: 7 February 2019
Copyright
© 2019.
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Other Metrics
Citations
Cite As
Melissa Anne Fernandez PhD, RD, Marie Marquis PhD, RD, Sophie Desroches PhD, RD, Mylène Turcotte MSc, RD, and Véronique Provencher PhD, RD. 2019. Full-Time Employment, Diet Quality, and Food Skills of Canadian Parents. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research.
80(2): 63-71. https://doi.org/10.3148/cjdpr-2018-041
Export Citations
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
There are no citations for this item
View Options
Get Access
Login options
Check if you access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.
Subscribe
Click on the button below to subscribe to Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research
