Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA.
Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2020 Jul;257:112082. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.023. Epub 2018 Dec 19.
Parental stress has been shown associated with children's eating behaviors. The stress-buffering hypothesis suggests that social resources, i.e., resources accessed via one's social networks, may prevent or attenuate the impact of stress on health. Prior research on the stress-buffering hypothesis has found evidence for the protective effects of social support (emotional, instrumental, or informational resources available in a person's life); less is known about social capital (resources available through one's social networks) as a stress buffer. Further, these studies have often examined the association between a person's direct access to social resources and their health; less research has examined whether the benefits of social resources may extend two degrees from parents to their children. Using data from a community-based birth cohort of mother-child dyads, this study examined whether mother's social capital moderated the association between maternal stress and children's emotional overeating (EO). Mothers completed health questionnaires on an annual basis and a one-time social network questionnaire in 2011-2012. EO was measured using the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Maternal stress was measured using the 18-item Parental Stress Scale. Social capital was measured using a position generator and based on the number of occupations to which a mother had access. Poisson regression analysis was used. Results showed that mother's social capital moderated the positive association between greater maternal stress and children's EO, such that maternal stress was associated with children's EO in only those mothers with low social capital. This study suggests that social capital may disrupt the transmission of maternal stress from parent to child, thereby playing a potential role in the production and reproduction of health inequalities.
父母压力与儿童的饮食行为有关。压力缓冲假说表明，社会资源（即通过社交网络获得的资源）可以预防或减轻压力对健康的影响。先前关于压力缓冲假说的研究发现了社会支持（一个人生活中可获得的情感、工具或信息资源）的保护作用的证据；而社会资本（通过社交网络获得的资源）作为压力缓冲的证据则知之甚少。此外，这些研究通常考察了一个人直接获得社会资源与其健康之间的关联；较少研究考察了社会资源的益处是否可能从父母延伸到他们的孩子的两个程度。本研究使用基于社区的母婴对子出生队列的数据，考察了母亲的社会资本是否调节了母亲压力与儿童情绪性过度进食（EO）之间的关联。母亲每年完成健康问卷，2011-2012 年完成一次社交网络问卷。EO 通过儿童饮食行为问卷进行测量。母亲压力通过 18 项父母压力量表进行测量。社会资本通过位置生成器进行测量，并基于母亲可获得的职业数量。使用泊松回归分析。结果表明，母亲的社会资本调节了母亲压力与儿童 EO 之间的正相关关系，即只有在社会资本较低的母亲中，母亲压力才与儿童 EO 相关。本研究表明，社会资本可能会破坏母亲压力从父母向孩子的传递，从而在健康不平等的产生和再生产中发挥潜在作用。
