Parental perceptions of the food environment and their influence on food decisions among low-income families: a rapid review of qualitative evidence

Background The food environment within and surrounding homes influences family dietary habits with socio-economic areas at a nutritional disadvantage. Families’ perception of the food environment and how it influences their food decisions is less clear. This rapid review aimed to synthesise qualitative evidence of parental perspectives of the food environment and their influence on food decisions among disadvantaged families. Method Qualitative and mixed-methods peer-reviewed journal articles published after 2000, that explored the perspectives of low-income parents in relation to their food environment and how this impacted food decisions for families with children aged 2-17 years, were included in this review. Embase, Scopus and PsycINFO were the databases chosen for this review. Search strategies included seven concepts related to family, food, perceptions, influences, environment, socio-economic status and study type. Two independent reviewers screened sixty-four studies. Thematic synthesis was employed. Results Two thousand one hundred and forty five results were identified through database searching and 1,650 were screened. Fourteen articles that originated from the US, Australia and the UK were included in this review. No articles were excluded following quality appraisal. Child preferences, financial and time constraints, and location and access to food outlets were barriers to accessing healthy food. Parental nutrition education and feeding approaches varied but positive outcomes from interventions to address these behaviours will be short-lived if inequities in health caused by poverty and access to affordable and healthy food are not addressed. The reliance on social support from families or government sources played an important role for families but are likely to be short-term solutions to health and nutritional inequities. Conclusions This qualitative evidence synthesis provides an insight into the perceptions of low-income parents on the factors influencing food decisions. Findings have implications for public health and the development of effective strategies to improve the dietary habits of children of disadvantaged families. Sustainable changes to dietary habits for families on low-income requires policy responses to low income, food access and to the high cost of healthy foods.

HOW BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS CAN SUPPORT SCHOOLS IN THEIR FUNCTION OF BUILDING CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CAPITAL – PROBLEMS OF IMPLEMENTATION

This text describes the difficulties in implementing those activities of the model which are directly aimed at children. Most of them are carried out at school, but require the cooperation of many institutions at the same time: a social welfare centre, school, library or museum. This is one of the challenges of implementation. Another difficulty is the development of mechanisms at school through which teachers will be able to recognise that a pupil's problems in learning or in his/her relations with peers are due to certain negative patterns at home, and as a result he/she cannot count on the kind of support that children of parents who are higher in the social structure receive. In other words, the measures designed are intended to support the school to the extent that it provides social capital to children from disadvantaged families. The very specific circumstances of testing the above-mentioned actions were not without significance. This coincided with the period of the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic, which challenged the school's discharge of its basic duties towards its pupils. It is worth noting here that the school of the time of the pandemic has even fewer tools for equalising opportunities for children than in normal times.

The Effects of Service Coordination on Disadvantaged Parents’ Participation in Activation Programs and Employment: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Purpose This randomized controlled study evaluates the effects of coordinated follow-up within a family intervention project on parents’ participation in activation programs and employment. The trial has been registered on Clinicaltrials.gov (Identifier: NCT03102775). Methods Of 2634 families, 1429 families were randomized to be offered follow-up by a family coordinator, while 1205 families participated in ordinary follow-up without a family coordinator. An analysis of longitudinal administrative data was performed to estimate the effects of the intervention on parents’ participation in activation programs and employment by comparing the two follow-up methods. Results Based on fixed effects logistic models, the follow-up with a family coordinator is associated with non-significant effects on participation in activation programs (OR = 1.05, 95% CI [0.81, 1.37]) and employment (OR = 1.11, 95% CI [0.67, 1.82]). Discussion The results provide no significant evidence on the effectiveness of coordination efforts for disadvantaged families on activation and employment.

Editorial Introduction

The two case studies of Part IV are based on interviews with poor, disadvantaged families in Lahore (Pakistan) and Cincinnati (United States). These analyses in the sociocultural and welfare dimension address the subjective experiences of how the lockdowns resulting from COVID-19 impacted the quality of the circumstances of their daily lives. The analyses of Part III primarily also were oriented around the sociocultural and welfare dimension. They, among others, regarded the impact of the pandemic on community resilience and agency in the United Kingdom and Germany to sustain supportive networks in their respective “civil societies.” By also exploring political “civic activism” and the impact on “democratic resilience,” the observations and discussions here though have become primarily focused on the sociopolitical and legal dimension.

Support of young children from disadvantaged families in Switzerland: mixed-method evaluation of the home visitation program Schritt:weise

Purpose Children from disadvantaged families often already show developmental deficits at the time of school entry. The goal of Schritt:weise, a preventive, easy-access early education program for children ages one to five is to avoid such deficits through a combination of home visits by semi-professionals as well as center-based group activities. The program has been translated and adapted from the Dutch program Opstapje and is now being implemented in different regions in Switzerland. To offer the program more readily in rural areas, four adapted models were developed. This paper aims to provide a mixed-method, combined process and outcome evaluation of these newly developed models. Design/methodology/approach For this combined process and outcome evaluation, standardized testing for child development outcomes and interviews with different stakeholders were conducted. Findings The evaluation found that implementation of all four models was feasible and children developed along the norm in all four of the models. This finding was confirmed one year after program completion. Research limitations/implications Building an evidence-base to better understand success of early intervention programs is key to effectively supporting children from disadvantaged families in their development. Practical implications This early education program using home-visitation with semi-professionals is feasible and successful in reaching children from disadvantaged families. Social implications It is possible to support children from disadvantaged families through the program Schritt:weise and prevent developmental deficits at school entry. Originality/value The finding that children developed along the norm in all four models means that the key program goal was achieved and that the specific implementation model can be chosen based on the specifics of the implementation context.

“Some days it’s like she has died.” A qualitative exploration of first mothers’ utilisation of artefacts associated with now-adopted children in coping with grief and loss

In this article, I take a critical approach to the marginalisation of the grief experienced by first mothers who have experienced the non-consensual adoption of a child in England, in a context within which welfare benefits and services intended to support the most disadvantaged families have been dramatically curtailed. With reference to the concepts of disenfranchised grief and ambiguous loss, and in light of some identified parallels between the death of a child and the loss of a child to adoption, I draw upon literature from the field of bereavement studies in presenting findings arising from semi-structured interviews in which 17 first mothers sorted through artefacts such as toys, clothing and blankets associated with their now-adopted children and reflected upon the meanings that such keepsakes had taken on in their lives after loss. Respondents’ accounts revealed that artefacts were invested with high value, and could operate as vehicles for memories of time spent caring for children. It was found that interacting with artefacts could bring comfort, evoking in mothers sensory memories of the smell and feel of their now-adopted child. Interactions with artefacts were found to hold capacity to affirm respondents’ maternal status, as well as symbolising oppression and injustice, sometimes evoking strong feelings of anger directed towards professionals involved in children’s adoption.

Food insecurity during COVID-19 pandemic: A genuine concern for people from disadvantaged community and low-income families in Province 2 of Nepal

Background Food insecurity is a serious social and public health problem which is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic especially in resource-poor countries such as Nepal. However, there is a paucity of evidence at local levels. This study aims to explore food insecurity among people from the disadvantaged community and low-income families during the COVID-19 pandemic in Province-2 of Nepal. Methods The semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted virtually among purposively selected participants (n = 41) from both urban and rural areas in eight districts of Province 2 in Nepal. All the interviews were conducted in the local language between July and August 2020. The data analysis was performed using thematic network analysis in Nvivo 12 Pro software. Results The results of this study are grouped into four global themes: i) Impact of COVID-19 on food security; ii) Food insecurity and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, iii) Food relief and emergency support during the COVID-19 pandemic, and iv) Impact of COVID-19 and food insecurity on health and wellbeing. Most participants in the study expressed that families from low socioeconomic backgrounds and disadvantaged communities such as those working on daily wages and who rely on remittance had experienced increased food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants used different forms of coping strategies to meet their food requirements during the pandemic. Community members experienced favouritism, nepotism, and partiality from local politicians and authorities during the distribution of food relief. The food insecurity among low-income and disadvantaged families has affected their health and wellbeing making them increasingly vulnerable to the COVID-19 infection. Conclusion Food insecurity among low-income and disadvantaged families was found to be a serious problem during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study suggests that the relief support plan and policies should be focused on the implementation of immediate sustainable food security strategies to prevent hunger, malnutrition, and mental health problems among the most vulnerable groups in the community.

Brain Syndemics: Cognitive Deficit, Pathways of Interaction, and the Biology of Inequality

Children born into and raised in disadvantaged families tend to experience poorer health and more developmental delays, lower achievement, and a greater number of behavioural and emotional problems than children from wealthier homes. There is growing evidence that poverty and social inequality leave their imprint on brain structure as well. The brain exhibits considerable plasticity, one expression of which is shaped by the biology of inequality. A specific consequence is cognitive deficit found among children raised in poverty and subject to social discrimination. This paper argues that several pathways impacted by poverty, including chronic stress, malnutrition, exposure to heightened levels of air pollution, and other toxin exposures, syndemically link social inequality to underlying neural mechanisms and to suboptimal brain development and structure. These deficits need not be permanent and are reversible through urgently needed structural, socio-economic intervention.

How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in China

Recent studies have shown that air quality is an important amenity for population relocation in China. However, much of Chinese internal migration occurs due to non-discretionary reasons, such as government policies, family considerations, and military personnel reassignments. As such, estimates of the impact of environmental amenities on migration that do not control for migration reasons may be biased. Using the 2015 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this paper estimates the impact of ambient air pollution on voluntary migration to other provinces for work. We find that more polluted days (air quality index (AQI) >150) at the original residence leads to a significant increase in labor out-migration to a province with better air quality, providing evidence of the current migration trend leading to declining populations in China’s megacities. Our findings indicate that environmental migration is more favored among households that are less educated, are older, work overtime, and have lower income, suggesting that environmental migration may result from environmental health inequalities in socially disadvantaged families.