New research from the UK suggests children whose mothers go out to work are likely to lead unhealthier lifestyles than those whose mums don’t work. The research examined more than 12,500 five year old children who were part of the UK Millennium Cohort Study. The mothers were questioned about the hours they worked and their children’s diet, exercise levels, and sedentary activities such as how long their child spent in front of a TV or computer each day.
The findings showed that children whose mothers worked part, or full time, were more likely to primarily consume sugary drinks between meals than kids whose mothers had never worked. These children were also more likely to spend at least 2 hours a day in front of the TV or at a computer, and they were more likely to be driven to school rather than walk or cycle. Children whose mothers worked full time were also less likely to primarily snack on fruit and vegetables between meals, or to eat three or more portions of fruit a day.
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Associate Professor Jo Salmon is from the Centre for Physical Activity & Nutrition Research (C-PAN) at Deakin University
“Mothers are considered the ‘gatekeepers’ of children’s health behaviours and in nutrition and physical activity research, the mother’s demographic characteristics are commonly accounted for in acknowledgement of this. For example, the education level of the mother is often related to the child’s health behaviours, so it is not surprising that the working patterns of mothers in this study was found to be associated with children’s physical activity and eating behaviours. We have previously published research that did not find an association between Australian parents’ employment status and children’s physical activity (this was using an objective measure of activity -an activity monitor), but we did not separate mothers and fathers in our analysis, which may account for this difference.”
Dr Peter Clifton is a visiting scientist at CSIRO’s Preventative Health Flagship. He is also Affiliate Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Science at the University of Adelaide and Laboratory Head, Nutritional Interventions at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute.
“The paper is difficult to interpret from an Australian point of view as initially all relationships were positive and then after adjustment for socioeconomic factors (amongst others) they were then reversed. It would have been helpful to know the income, education level etc of the non working mothers to see if they are the same group as in Australia. Without that data and knowledge of the characteristics of non working Australian mothers it is difficult to draw conclusions. I see no obvious connection between soft drink consumption and working mothers unless the working mothers were lower socioeconomic status, lower education etc and it is this factor not the fact of working that accounts for the relationship.”