How parents' financial hardship determines the shift towards more sustainable diets: Mediating effects of motives, perceived effort and feeling of powerlessness

In high-income 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 association of perceived financial scarcity with the different psychological constructs. A greater financial scarcity was associated with a higher importance of price (ηp2=0.12, p<0.0001) and familiarity (ηp2=0.02, p<0.0001) in food choices, a higher perceived effort of changing family habits (ηp2=0.04, p=0.003) and a higher feeling of powerlessness (ηp2=0.01, p=0.003), even after adjustment for age, gender, marital status and education level. Overall, the intention to increase the consumption of healthy plant-based food groups and to reduce meat consumption was low across the whole sample and not predicted by feelings of financial hardship, with the exception of increasing legume consumption . Participants perceiving greater financial hardship were less likely to intend to increase legume consumption (OR=0.81, p=0.007) and this was partly explained by food choice motives (13 to 15% of the effect mediated by familiarity and health 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.