The relationship between the gendered norm of eating last and mental health of newly married women in Nepal: A longitudinal study

Abstract

Eating last is a gendered cultural norm in which the youngest daughters-in-law are expected to eat last after serving others in the household, including men and in-laws. Using women's eating last as an indicator of women's status, we studied the association between eating last and women's mental health. Using four rounds of prospective cohort data of 18-25-year-old newly married women (n = 200) cohabiting with mothers-in-law between 2018 and 2020 in the Nawalparasi district of Nepal, we examined the association between women eating last and depressive symptom severity (measured using 15-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist for Depression; HSCL-D). Twenty-five percent of women reported eating last always.The prevalence of probable depression using the established cutoff was 5.5%, consistent with the prevalence of depression in the general population. Using a hierarchical mixed-effects linear regression model, we found that women who always ate last had an expected depressive symptom severity (0-3 on HSCL-D) 0.24 points (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.13-0.36) greater compared to women who did not eat last when adjusted for demographic variables, household food insecurity, and secular trends. Sensitivity analysis using logistic regression also suggested that women who eat last have greater odds of having probable depression (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 4.05; 95% CI: 1.32-12.44). We explored if the association between eating last and depressive symptom severity was moderated by household food insecurity and did not observe evidence of moderation, underscoring the significance of eating last as a woman's status indicator. Our study findings highlight that newly young married women in Nepal are a vulnerable group.

The Association between Intrahousehold Food Allocation Social Norms and Thinness among Young Adolescent Girls: A Community-Based Study

“…Also, when food insecurity is severe, the discriminatory capacity of the social norms would be minimal. Everybody gets much less than the recommended diet ( 37 ). According to the literature, adolescents with low bargaining power have less control over intrahousehold food allocation and, as a result, are more likely to have poor nutritional status.…”

Eating for honour: A cultural-ecological analysis of food behaviours among adolescent girls in the southern plains of Nepal

“…Our research found that this extended to eating, encouraging girls to accept that they could not eat what they pleased, they could not routinely access economic resources, and they may have to sacrifice their nutritional need for the family. This would help prepare them for life as a dutiful daughter-in-law and wife who is accustomed to being restricted in what they could eat [68].…”