In this methods and conceptual development study we will examine the relationship between dietary intake and social processes from employment roles, family roles, and work-family integration (defined as reciprocal adjustment to role demands and benefits at the work-family interface). We will characterize, conceptualize, operationalize, and pilot test these relationships in a population of low- and moderate-income, multi-ethnic, employed parents. Long hours of employment, little schedule flexibility or backup, spillover of employment demands into home life, a decline in family meals prepared or eaten at home, and poor nutritional quality of meals typically obtained outside the home, make integration of work and family roles an emerging problem with great importance for cancer prevention and control, especially among low-income families. An initial conceptual model that emphasizes the way that dietary intake is shaped by the dynamic interaction of individual characteristics with social processes and conditions from work and family roles and work-family integration will guide this research. We will answer the question: How do low- and moderate-income employed parents experience and integrate the impact of social processes and conditions from work and family roles on their dietary behaviors? A multidisciplinary team of nutritional and social scientists will use a sequential mixed methods design to conduct this research in four linked phases: 1) qualitative research to characterize the issues of interest, 2) conceptual model development, 3) operationalization of constructs through measure development and evaluation, and 4) a pilot test of the protocols and measures in a three-day diary study. Our study will produce new understandings of work-family integration and food choices, a grounded conceptual model, tested measures, and a proven study protocol for investigating the contribution of social processes of work and family integration to the dietary intakes of low- and moderate-income working parents. The results will be useful in both interventions and future research.
