Work can affect access to economic, social, and personal resources for food choices. Poorer dietary practices have been associated with lower status jobs, high work demand, and lack of control over work, but the processes through which work influences food choices are not well understood. A qualitative study of workers’ experiences of their jobs as influences on their food choices was conducted. Forty-four multi-ethnic, urban, low- and moderate-income adults were interviewed as part of a study of influences on fruit and vegetable choices. Workers experienced the relationship between work and food choices in the context of their family roles and values. Work influenced family roles and food choices through positive and negative spillover onto workers’ perceived ability to fulfill family roles, linked by a spectrum of strategies for managing food choice. Workers’ perceptions fit into three domains: characterizations and experiences of work, strategies for managing food choices, and feelings about the spillover of food choice strategies on family roles. Workers who experienced their food choices as a source of guilt were differentiated from those who experienced food choices as a source of pride and satisfaction by their perceptions of work demands and flexibility. Ideals and values related to food choices and health were balanced against family values for nurturing and development. These findings suggest a broad conceptualization of the relationship of work to food choice viewed in social and temporal context. This project was partially funded by a grant to the Division of Nutritional Sciences by USDA-CSREES.
Learning Objectives: na
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.