In Western countries, a shift towards healthier and more plant-based diets is necessary to ensure a more sustainable food system, but parents experiencing financial hardship may have greater difficulty in making such changes. Drawing on the scarcity theory, this study aims to examine the influence of parents' perceived financial hardship on the intention to adopt a more plant-based diet for the family through food choice motives, perceived effort of changing habits and feeling of powerlessness on the food system. A quota sample of 498 parents living in mainland France completed an online questionnaire. Linear models were run to identify the influence of perceived financial scarcity on the different psychological constructs. A greater financial scarcity was associated with a higher importance of price and familiarity in food choices, a higher perceived effort of changing family habits and a higher feeling of powerlessness, even after adjustment for age, gender, marital status and education level. Overall, the intention to shift towards more plant-based dietary habits was low across the whole sample, but even slightly lower in parents experiencing greater financial hardship when it came to increasing legume consumption, which was partly explained by food choice motives. This study highlights the multiple barriers that parents with financial difficulties are facing when it comes to adopting healthier and environmentally-friendlier dietary patterns. Promoting more sustainable choices requires taking into account affordability but also the importance of motives and the perceived cost of changing habits, especially for legumes.
Verdeau et al. (Fri,) studied this question.