Parents’ Modeling During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Influences on Family Members’ Diet Quality and Satisfaction With-Food-Related Life in Dual-Earner Parents With Adolescent Children

Abstract

Reciprocal family influences in the food domain have been little explored, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. To fill in this gap, this study explored actor and partner effects between parents’ food modeling and parents’ and their adolescent children’s diet quality and satisfaction with food-related life (SWFoL); and the mediating role of diet quality between modeling and SWFoL. This study used a cross-sectional design. A sample of 430 different-sex dual-earner parents and one adolescent child were recruited in Rancagua, Chile, between March and June 2020. Parents answered the modeling dimension of the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire. Parents and adolescents answered the Adapted Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) and the SWFoL Scale. Analyses were conducted using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model and structural equation modeling. Results showed that one parent’s modeling enhanced diet quality for themselves, their partner, and the adolescents. Parents’ modeling was associated with their own SWFoL, directly and via their own diet quality. There were positive associations between mothers’ modeling and adolescents’ SWFoL; between mothers’ diet quality and fathers’ SWFoL; and between mothers’ modeling and fathers’ SWFoL via the fathers’ diet quality. Parents’ modeling can improve the three family members’ diet quality, while mothers’ modeling and diet quality showed to improve fathers’ and adolescents’ SWFoL.

Revisiting the link between domain satisfaction and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: Job-related moderators in triadic analysis in dual-earner parents with adolescent children

“…This finding contradicts a pre-pandemic study in Chile that showed no significant crossover effects in the same variables for adolescent-father dyads (54). Therefore, this result may reflect a greater involvement of fathers in their children's eating habits during the pandemic, a trend consistently reported in the early stages of this public health crisis (18,20,28).…”

“…Part-time employees have also reported greater levels of job ( 72 ), and food-related life satisfaction ( 61 ) than those working full-time. In this line, more working hours in mothers have been linked to lower SWFoL in their adolescent children ( 71 ), and self-employed mothers and their adolescents children have reported better diet quality than employed mothers and their adolescents ( 28 ). During the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in adults' life satisfaction has been also associated with the city and region of residence, that is, the likelihood of experiencing decreased life satisfaction is higher for those living in a big city compared to those living in small cities or in rural areas ( 13 , 73 ).…”

“…Studies have reported unidirectional or asymmetric crossover effects, from one partner to the other [e.g., ( 23 , 24 )], but also bidirectional or symmetric effects, from one partner to the other and vice versa [e.g., ( 25 – 27 )]. Studies on parent-child dyads, have also reported crossover from only one parent to their children [e.g., ( 10 , 18 )] and from both parents to their children [e.g., ( 28 , 29 )]. Research on crossover from children to their parents are sparser ( 30 , 31 ).…”

“…The role of satisfaction with food-related life (SWFoL) has been less studied, but pre-pandemic evidence suggests that it is associated with life satisfaction in adult and adolescent samples ( 18 , 47 , 49 , 52 ). Diet quality, a variable linked to this domain, has been positively associated with satisfaction with food-related life [SWFoL, ( 18 , 28 , 53 )]. Crossover effects have been found between SWFoL and life satisfaction from fathers to mothers ( 54 ), and from adolescents to mothers ( 31 ).…”

Satisfaction with Food: Profiles of Two-Parent Families with Adolescent Children

“…In the cohesiveness of family meals and healthy eating, the three members of the families in Profile 3 also obtained higher values and the highest SWFoL score. This might be indicative of high SWFoL levels in adolescents being related to healthy eating habits and good family relations [ 14 ], and of parents being a model of healthy eating habits [ 83 , 84 , 85 ]. However, Profile 3 was the one that presented the highest percentage of adolescents with a BMI of obesity (14.0%) and malnourishment (18.0%), which would denote that frequent and cohesive family meals are not sufficient to achieve diets and healthier weights in adolescents [ 21 ].…”