Women's Perceptions of the Relationship Between Recent Life Events, Transitions, and Diet in Midlife: Findings from a Focus Group Study

Abstract

Research indicates that history and early life events and trajectories influence women's dietary behaviors. Yet the social context in which recent life changes occur requires greater understanding, particularly regarding changes that embody the interconnectedness of women and their families, and how those changes affect women's dietary decisions and behaviors. The data presented here were the product of eight focus groups conducted in one Maryland county in the fall of 2009. The participants were 43 women with limited financial resources aged 40–64 years. In this analysis, the researchers focus on women's perceptions of the relation of recent life transitions and events to the dietary decisions they made for themselves and their families. The findings suggested that transitions and events related to household structure, health status, phases of motherhood, and shifts in financial and employment status all had the potential to have profound and immediate effects on women's dietary decisions and resulting dietary behaviors. The focus group data was used to consider implications for developing intervention strategies designed to improve self-efficacy and negotiation skills around dietary issues as a means of promoting healthy decision making among women in midlife, particularly in times of familial upheaval and in circumstances where financial resources are limited.

KEYWORDS:

• dietary decisions
• midlife
• life events

Notes

This work was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (5K01DP001129-03, K.C. Smith, PI). At the time this research was conducted, E. E. Kromm was the Senior Advisor to the Health Officer with the Howard County Health Department, and N. A. Brown was a doctoral student in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Brown is currently supported by the Research Center of Excellence in Minority Health and Health Disparities, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (5P60MD000207-11, S.B. Thomas, PI). The authors would like to thank Michelle Oswald, former manager of cancer and tobacco control programs with the Howard County Health Department for her assistance in the recruitment of participants and set up of the focus groups. In addition, the authors thank Dr. Peter Beilenson, Howard County Health Officer, for his support of this research project.

1. The term “M, FG6, 51–64” indicates that speaker M, who participated in Focus Group 6, which included women 51–64 years of age, provided this data excerpt.