Memories of meals in the Grandparents Study : A work in progress

• The Grandparent Study, an interview-based qualitative study in Eugene, Oregon, was launched in 2011 with the aim of exploring parents’ and grandparents’ roles in the food habits and physical activity of children in socioeconomically disadvantaged families. The data are collected through semi-structured interviews from 16 families which all centred around one child in the family (3-5 years of age). The sample consists of 49 participants: 22 parents (14 women) and 27 grandparents (21 women). Since the study’s initiation, several works have been published related to subjects such as perceptions about the children’s body weight (Eli, Howell, Fisher, & Nowicka, 2014a), the gendered and generational division of domestic food responsibilities (Neuman, Eli, & Nowicka, 2019) and the participants’ own memories of becoming aware of their bodies (Eli, Howell, Fisher, & Nowicka, 2014b). The latter publication connects to the present study, which is a work in progress about the participants’ meal memories. Drawing on research on commensality – the activity of sharing a meal – we explore how eating in the family is recounted in a variety of ways, positively and negatively, thus problematizing a priori assumptions about the family meal as a social knit. As argued by other scholars before us (e.g. Andersen, Holm, & Baarts, 2015; Grignon, 2001; Julier, 2013), commensality may facilitate social communion and is both desired and idealized among some, but it may also bring with it social exclusion, stigma or other undesirable social consequences. ReferencesAndersen, S. S., Holm, L., & Baarts, C. (2015). School meal sociality or lunch pack individualism? Using an intervention study to compare the social impacts of school meals and packed lunches from home. Social Science Information, 54(3), 394–416Eli, K., Howell, K., Fisher, P. A., & Nowicka, P. (2014a). “A little on the heavy side”: a qualitative analysis of parents' and grandparents' perceptions of preschoolers' body weights. BMJ Open, 4(12). doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006609Eli, K., Howell, K., Fisher, P. A., & Nowicka, P. (2014b). “Those comments last forever”: Parents and grandparents of preschoolers recount how they became aware of their own body weights as children. PloS one, 9(11), e111974. Grignon, C. (2001). Commensality and social morphology : an essay of typology. In P. Scholliers (Ed.), Food, drink and identity : cooking, eating and drinking in Europe since the Middle Ages (pp. 23-33). Oxford: Berg.Julier, A. P. (2013). Eating together : food, friendship, and inequality. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Neuman, N., Eli, K., & Nowicka, P. (2019). Feeding the extended family: Gender, generation, and socioeconomic disadvantage in food provision to children. Food, Culture & Society, 22(1), 45-62. 

Nyckelord

Kostvetenskap

Food, Nutrition and Dietetics

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)