Relationships of mental health status with weight-related cognitions, home environment characteristics, and behaviors of mothers of school-age-children

The prevalence of mental health including anxiety, depression, and stress are a growing concern in the United States. Women specifically, experience mental health issues at higher levels than men as well as bear the responsibility of influencing the weight-related behaviors of their children. Limited research has investigated anxiety, depression, and stress in mothers of school age children with the current literature primarily related to pre- and postpartum mothers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of mental health characteristics with weight-related cognitions, home environments, and behaviors of mothers with school-age children (6 to 11 years-old). Mothers (N=531) with school-age children engaged in the online home “Home Obesogenicity Measure of EnvironmentS”- 2 (HOMES-2) survey, consisting of various scales evaluating health status, weight-related cognitions, behaviors, and home environment characteristics. Overall, mothers clustered into four groups revealed an incline of anxiety, depression and stress symptoms as cluster groups increased. Mothers with poorer symptoms of mental health had a decline in general health rating, had more days of poor physical and mental health, and more days of health impaired activities. Maternal findings on how weight-related cognitions, home environment characteristics, and behaviors differed by maternal mental health status revealed a negative trend in those mothers reporting poorer mental health. Family mealtime was less frequent at home and home environment characteristics were less than ideal in mothers with poorer mental health. Mothers with greater mental health symptoms had more availability of sugar-sweetened beverages, consumed more sugar-sweetened beverages as did their children, and had more family meals in unhealthy locations. Study results of maternal weight-related behaviors showed that mothers with poorer mental health got less sleep and had poorer eating behaviors. Likewise, children of mothers with poorer mental health paralleled these findings when comparing child health weight related behaviors. The study findings suggest that maternal mental health has strong links to maternal weight-related cognitions, maternal and child health behaviors, and home environments. Thus, maternal mental health status should be considered when assessing nutritional health and addressed in interventions seeking to improve nutritional health.M.S.Includes bibliographical reference