# Revisiting the Link between Workplace Support for Families, Family Support, Diet Quality, and Satisfaction with Food-Related Life in the Second Year of the Pandemic

## TL;DR

This study explores how workplace and family support affect diet quality and food satisfaction in Chilean families during the pandemic.

## Contribution

The study reveals distinct roles of mothers' and fathers' support in influencing food-related life satisfaction through diet quality.

## Key findings

- Mothers' workplace support improved their and their children's food-related life satisfaction.
- Mothers' family support enhanced diet quality and satisfaction for all family members.
- Diet quality positively influenced each family member's food-related life satisfaction.

## Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine the actor and partner effects between Perceived Workplace Support for Families (PWSFs) and family support (PFS), diet quality, and satisfaction with food-related life (SWFoL) in households with both parents working and adolescents, along with the role of the three family members’ diet quality as a mediator. During the second year of the pandemic in Chile, 860 dual-earner parents of different sexes and their adolescent child (average age 13 years, with 50.7% being male) were recruited from two cities. Parents responded to a measure of PWSFs and the Perceived Family Support Scale. Mothers, fathers, and adolescents answered the Adapted Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) and the satisfaction with food-related life Scale. The examination employed the mediation Actor–Partner Interdependence Model and structural equation modeling for the analyses. Results showed that mothers’ PWSFs improved their and their teenage children’s SWFoL, while fathers’ PWSFs only improved their SWFoL. The mothers’ PFS improved their and the fathers’ diet quality while enhancing their SWFoL and the adolescents’ SWFoL. The fathers’ PFS enhanced their and the adolescents’ SWFoL. The mothers’ PFS also indirectly enhanced their and the fathers’ SWFoL via each parent’s diet quality. Each family member’s diet quality was positively related to their SWFoL, while mothers’ diet quality was positively related to the fathers’ SWFoL. These results imply that resources obtained by parents from PFS positively impact the SWFoL of the three family members through different mechanisms. They also highlight the importance of maternal family support for SWFoL during the pandemic.