CLASS-DIFFERENCES IN THE FOOD RULES MOTHERS IMPOSE ON THEIR CHILDREN - A CROSS-NATIONAL-STUDY

Many studies indicate that children in middle-class families have heal thier eating habits than children in lower class families. Class diffe rences in food rules, which parents and especially mothers impose on t heir children, may underlie these social inequalities in food consumpt ion. The present study uses education as a classifying variable and an alyses whether mothers with higher education prescribe more ''healthy' ' foodstuffs for their children and whether they restrict more ''unhea lthy'' food items than less educated mothers. Moreover, the study exam ines whether higher class mothers consider health aspects more often a nd the preferences of their family members less often in their choice of food, and whether class differences in these considerations explain class differences in food rules. To answer these questions, questionn aires on the food practices of 849 women living in middle-class or low er class districts in Maastricht (the Netherlands), Liege (Belgium) an d Aachen (Germany) were collected and analysed. The majority of mother s in each city prescribed primarily foods that were served at dinner l ike meat and vegetables, and most mothers limited their children's con sumption of sweet foods, soft drinks and snacks. Higher class mothers restricted more foods, but prescribed as many food items as their lowe r class counterparts. Class differences in the number of restricted fo ods were partly, but not completely, explained by class differences in health and taste considerations. Despite national variations in dieta ry habits and possibly in the education of children, class differences in food rules and the explanatory power of health acid taste consider ations were comparable in the three cities. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.