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Article Excerpt
Differences in food expenditures in married- and single-parent families are examined using the Consumer Expenditure Survey Diary Component (1990-2003). Single parents, compared to married parents, allocate a greater share of their food budget to alcohol and food purchased away from home; conversely, they spend a smaller share of their food budget on vegetables and fruits. Compared to married parents, single fathers spend a greater share on alcohol and food purchased away from home and a lesser share on vegetables, fruits, meat and beans, desserts and snacks, and prepared foods. Single mothers, compared to married parents, spend a greater share on grains and nonalcoholic beverages and a lesser share on vegetables and alcohol. Single mothers and fathers differ from each other in almost all categories of food and beverage expenditure. We also find important differences based on the employment status of parents in the household: families where all parents are employed, irrespective of family structure, spend a greater share of their food budgets on food purchased away from home and a lesser share on vegetables, fruits, milk, and meat and beans compared with married-couple families in which the mother is not employed. We discuss ways in which family structure and parental employment status may be associated with food purchasing decisions.
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As of the year 2000, 15% of children and adolescents (ages 6--19) were overweight (National Center for Health Statistics 2002). Being overweight is due in part to a combination of genetic factors, poor nutritional habits, and inactivity. Overweight youth have a 70% chance of becoming an overweight or obese adult, which is significant given the links between being overweight and obesity in adulthood and health problems (Whitaker et al. 1997). Although individuals cannot control their genetic endowment, exercise and choices regarding nutritious food consumption play an important behavioral role in a healthy lifestyle.
The incidence of child overweight and obesity has garnered the attention of policy makers and has led to legislation stressing the importance of good nutrition, regular exercise, and preventive health screenings. (1) The Agriculture Department, also responding to the nation's obesity problem, revamped the food pyramid by taking age, sex, weight, and exercise into consideration (USDA 2003). The new food pyramid (www.mypyramid.gov) emphasizes the importance of a healthy diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats (including poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts), and fat-free or low-fat milk products. Similarly, a healthy diet is one that is low in fats, salt, and added sugars.
Eating habits are formed early in life, and preferences and choices that are determined during childhood can shape lifelong eating habits. Thus, it is a concern that many children have poor diets. Prior research finds that 81% of the diets of two- to nine-year-olds were poor or in need of improvement (Lino et al. 2002) and that parents' nutrition knowledge affects children's knowledge and dietary practices (e.g., Contento et al. 1993; Oliveria et al. 1992). Households with low socioeconomic status have been found to have especially poor diets (Ramezani and Roeder 1995; Variyam et al. 1998).
Estimates from nationally representative datasets have examined the prevalence of obesity and overweight by race and socioeconomic status, but very little attention has been paid to family structure. An inverse relationship between income and obesity has been established among adult women, but not among men and children (for a review of this literature, see Sobal and Stunkard 1989). Specific analyses among children find conflicting results. Results suggest that income has an inverse relationship with obesity for white children and adolescents but that this relationship does not hold for Mexican American or black youth (National Center for Health Statistics 1998; Troiano and Flegal 1998). However, obesity and overweight rates among youth are highest for Mexican American males aged 6-11, black females aged 6-19, and adolescents between 12 and 19 from low-income households (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2000). Because single-parent families are more likely to be both poor and headed by a nonwhite parent, one might expect the prevalence of obesity and overweight among children residing in these households to be greater than that among other structures.
While no national estimates are available for obesity and overweight rates among children residing in single-parent families, one might expect that single-parent families have characteristics that could influence differences in nutrition, food expenditure, and consumption. This paper is primarily interested in the role of family structure in food expenditure decisions. Children growing up in single-parent families have an elevated risk of health problems (Dawson 1991) partly because of the association between single parenthood and poverty. However, other studies suggest that even when controlling for economic, poverty, and maternal education measures, residing in a family with a persistently unmarried parent or living in a family with a single mother early in life is related to chronic health problems (Lipman and Offord 1997). It is unclear if these health conditions are related to overweight and obesity.
In addition to having fewer economic resources on average, single parents also face greater time demands than married parents (Sandberg and Hofferth 2001) and single mothers have been found to be more socially isolated than married mothers (McLoyd 1990). Increased time demands might lead single parents to trade off good nutrition for the convenience of fast food or prepared foods (Zick and McCullough 1996). Single parents' social isolation might be associated with a lack of information or social support that would help them make better nutritional choices (Ramezani and Roeder 1995). Thus, the first empirical question we address in this paper is whether food expenditures vary between married-parent and single-parent families. All else equal, we expect to see "better," or more nutritionally sound, food expenditure decisions by married parents compared to single parents.
As single parents, both mothers and fathers may face increased time pressures and social isolation relative to their married counterparts. However, there is reason to believe that single mothers and fathers "parent" differently in ways that might be reflected in their food expenditure decisions. This belief is based on evidence from empirical studies of married couples that indicate, for example, that mothers' control over family resources is associated with improvements in children's health and nutrition (Thomas 1990, 1994). Similarly, increases in a wife's income relative to her husband's income are associated with greater expenditure on food, child care, and children's and women's clothing, and reduced expenditure on transportation (Phipps and Burton 1998). Other evidence that husbands and wives may differ in their preferences for expenditures comes from Lundberg and Pollak's (1996) and Lundberg, Pollak, and Wales's (1997) finding that when wives control more of the family resources than husbands, expenditures on children increase. Lundberg, Startz, and Stillman (2003) note that wives prefer to save more than do their husbands and that relative control over household decisions is affected by control over market income. These studies support a model of marital bargaining and suggest that children might fare better when their mothers control a larger fraction of family resources. Thus, all else equal, we expect to see better or more nutritionally sound food expenditure decisions by single mothers compared to single fathers. Therefore, the second empirical question addressed in this paper is whether single mothers and single fathers differ in their food expenditure decisions, both compared to each other and compared to married parents.
Previous research has examined differences between single-parent and married-parent families in both their overall expenditure levels and the shares allocated to major expenditure categories including food, housing, clothing, and transportation (Abdel-Ghany and Schwenk 1993; Boyle 1989; Horton and Hafstrom 1985) and between single mothers and single fathers (Lino 1990, 1991; Paulin and Lee 2002). Much less attention has been paid to differences in the allocation of food expenditures across family types, although Paulin and Lee (2002) found that single fathers spend a greater share of their total budget on food away from home than do single mothers.
METHOD
Data
This study uses data from the Diary Survey component of the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) from 1990 to 2003. The CEX is conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and collects information on the purchasing habits of the nation's households and families. The CEX sample is representative of the total noninstitutionalized urban and rural population in the United States. The data are collected in independent quarterly Interview and weekly Diary surveys of approximately 7,500 sample households (5,000 prior to 1999). During the last six weeks of the year, the Diary Survey sample is supplemented to twice its normal size to increase the reporting of types of expenditures unique to the holidays. Each survey has its own independent sample, and each collects data on household income and socioeconomic characteristics.
The Interview and Diary components of the CEX are two separate surveys, with two separate representative samples. The Interview survey is designed to obtain data on the types of expenditures respondents can recall for a period of three months or longer. Each consumer unit (2) is interviewed once per quarter for five consecutive quarters. The Diary Survey, on the other hand, is designed to obtain data on frequently purchased smaller items, including food and beverages, housekeeping supplies, tobacco, nonprescription drugs, and personal care products and services. In the Diary Survey, respondents keep track of all their purchases made each day for two consecutive one-week periods. The Diary Survey is especially valuable for collecting data on frequently purchased items such as food and beverages as these purchases are less likely to be recalled over a long period of time. The Diary Survey also collects employment and income information for all members of the household, as well as demographic information including family structure.
Sample
The sample used for the empirical analysis consists of 29,376 households with children in which the household head is married, never married, or divorced who participated in the Diary Survey in any year between 1990 and 2003. In creating this sample, households with either incomplete income or expenditure data (799 households) or where the household head was separated or widowed (1,801 households) were dropped. Those who were separated are not included...
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