Mediating roles of food availability and parental role-modeling on the socioeconomic inequalities of children’s diet

The socioeconomic status (SES) of the family is associated with the food consumption of the children and this association is mediated by different mediators. This study had two aims; firstly, to determine the associations between the determinants of SES and children’s food consumption, secondly to assess the mediating effects of food availability and parental role-modeling of the above associations. Parental educational level and relative income of the family were studied as the determinants of SES. Children’s food consumption was measured under two categories; fruits & vegetables (FV) and sugary food & drinks (SFD). Data was obtained from the baseline data collection of the DAGIS intervention study in 2017 which was conducted in 32 preschools in Salo (N=29) and Riihimäki (N=3). A FFQ filled by the parents was used to determine children’s food consumption. Information on parental educational level, family income, food availability, and parental role-modeling was extracted from the self-administered parental questionnaire. Parents of 698 preschool children aged from 3 to 6 years filled the parental questionnaire. Spearman’s correlations tests were conducted to determine the associations between SES determinants and children’s food consumption. Mediating roles of food availability and parental role-modeling were assessed through mediation analysis using PROCESS version 3 macro for SPSS. Parental educational level was a statistically significant predictor of children's FV consumption. Family relative income did not predict FV or SFD consumption of the children. The multiple mediators model revealed that the association between the parental educational level and children’s consumption of FV was partially mediated by three mediators: the availability of FV, parental role-modeling of FV, and the availability of SFD. The association between the relative income of the family and children's consumption of FV was fully mediated by two mediators: home availability of FV, and parental role-modeling of FV. This study suggested parental educational level is a better predictor of children’s food consumption compared to family income. The mediation roles of food availability and parental role-modeling should be taken into account in developing interventions to improve the FV and SFD consumption of children in Finland