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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

What it means to be an Ohio mother: A qualitative study of the social identities and interpersonal conversations that influence mothers’ food buying.

Rockers, Alyssa L
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu165841119769916

Abstract Details

2022, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Agricultural Communication, Education and Leadership.
Mothers are the predominant food purchasers for their families in American homes and influence their children’s future food decision-making. As a result of American mothers’ influence on their families, it is important to understand their experience purchasing food for their family members. In this study, a feminist standpoint lens was applied to understand how mothers’ social identities and interpersonal conversations influence their food purchasing for their families. To understand Ohio mothers’ experiences, 17 mothers were interviewed in a first-round interview establishing their identities and communication around food, after which 11 mothers were split into two focus groups to have conversations and participate in scenarios centered around identity and interpersonal conversations about food. The focus group participants were each then interviewed individually following the focus group to reflect on their experience. The transcripts from the interviews and focus groups were imported into MAXQDA22 for analysis and the data were then analyzed for themes after social groups were identified. The study identified that motherhood is a complex experience that while unique to social groups, also provides a unifying experience for mothers. Mothers’ food-related decision-making was most strongly influenced by their familial identities; however, it was identified that mothers’ social and cultural identities influence the ways that they make decisions and operate within their nuclear family – whether that be consistent with social and cultural messaging or contradictory to it. Participants in the study also experienced positive, negative, and neutral violations of their expectations for interactions around food, but it was observed that message senders were often trying to meet the expectations of message receivers, and in some cases message receivers would attempt to lower their expectations to avoid negative violations. Practitioners, educators, and future researchers should focus on the alternative truths created by different social groups and amplify the voices of alternative narratives that contrast with common, generalized narratives. Due to the nature of being a qualitative study, this research cannot be generalized, but instead should be used to develop a richer understanding of the experiences of social groups of mothers and the ways their identities and communication influence their food-related practices.
Joy Rumble (Advisor)
Cynthia Burack (Committee Member)
Jera Niewoehner-Green (Committee Member)
Emily Buck (Committee Member)
Agricultural Education; Communication
agricultural communication; communication; mothers; identity; interpersonal communication; expectancy violation theory; expectation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rockers, A. L. (2022). What it means to be an Ohio mother: A qualitative study of the social identities and interpersonal conversations that influence mothers’ food buying. [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu165841119769916

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rockers, Alyssa. What it means to be an Ohio mother: A qualitative study of the social identities and interpersonal conversations that influence mothers’ food buying. 2022. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu165841119769916.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rockers, Alyssa. "What it means to be an Ohio mother: A qualitative study of the social identities and interpersonal conversations that influence mothers’ food buying." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu165841119769916

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu165841119769916
249
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.