Mother’s Work, Social Capital and Child’s BMI

• In Event: 381 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Work-Family and Children: Session I

Abstract

While many studies have found positive associations between maternal employment and child obesity, the significance of the positive link has been stronger for or limited to the higher SES families. In contrast, there is not many US based empirical evidence for low income families and few studies that found any significance have shown mixed results. From low wage jobs to unstable work schedules, low income working mothers experience many hardships that led them to turn to their family, friends and neighbors to draw resources that are often described as social capital.

The objective of this study is to observe the direct effects of maternal work and social capital on child’s BMI in low income families, and whether work effects are moderated by different types and levels of social capital available to mothers. We used a sample of low income families enrolled in the Illinois Families Study: Child Well-Being. The outcome variable is child’s BMI while key independent variables included maternal work status and maternal social capital. We constructed a child-year data set with up to four records per child, which was analyzed with random-intercept logistic regression.

The results show that for low-income families, mother’s consistent work, mother’s access to individual level social support and her satisfaction with neighborhood environment were negatively associated with children’s BMI. The findings suggest that mother’s work becomes important on children’s healthier weight among low income population particularly when mothers do not have enough social support as additional resources.

Author

• Elissa H. Oh, Northwestern University