Angela Wiley, PhD

Associate Professor, Applied Family Studies

Extension Specialist, Family Life

Faculty Investigator

"Parenting Stress and Strengths in Families: Mealtime as a Resource"

Summary:

This project will identify significant sources of parenting stress and resources that may be used to combat this stress in the lives of families with preschool children. The study will examine parents who are balancing work-life issues while parenting a preschool-aged child. The goal of this project is to create a detailed picture of the structure and function of family mealtimes and to provide the basis for recommendations and future intervention strategies, especially those designed to capitalize on family mealtimes as a natural context for supporting parenting and promoting positive family outcomes.

Preliminary Findings:

Preliminary results provide a glimpse into the lives of busy families with preschool-aged children. Parents reported that they are faced with a variety of stressors and feel that they don't have enough time to meet their work and family responsibilities, that it is difficult to balance roles in these two domains and to find adequate child care, and that they miss their child when they are at work. Health and financial concerns were also raised by the parents.

Most of the parents in the sample reported eating dinner with their family most nights. Most dinners were prepared at the families' homes and men reported cooking quite often. Parents reported having dinnertime conversations. However, mothers and fathers had different opinions of how stressful these dinners were, with wives feeling more stressed than their husbands. Parents reported that dinner times could be improved by shortening meal preparation times and by having someone help prepare meals.