Food Availability, Motivational-Related Factors, and Food Consumption: A Path Model Study with Children

Abstract

The promotion of children’s healthy eating is a key public health priority. However, children’s food consumption is a complex phenomenon with several contributing factors, and there is a call to continue developing comprehensive models with several variables acting simultaneously. The present study aimed to examine the role different motivational-related variables (e.g., self-regulation, self-efficacy) may play in children’s consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods. To address this goal, data were collected in a sample of 242 fifth and sixth graders with access to both healthy and unhealthy foods at home. A path model was conducted to analyze networks of relationships between motivational-related variables and children’s healthy and unhealthy eating. The gender variable was included as a covariate to control its effect. The data showed that self-regulation for healthy eating mediates the relationship between the predictor variables (i.e., knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy) and the type of food consumption (healthy and unhealthy). Current data contribute to understanding the complexity behind food consumption by providing a comprehensive model with motivational-related factors associated with both healthy and unhealthy eating. The present findings are likely to help inform the development of early preventive interventions focused on the promotion of healthy eating.

Children’s Perceived Barriers to a Healthy Diet: The Influence of Child and Community-Related Factors

“…In addition, children mentioned that the habit of eating palatable food (e.g., fast food) makes it difficult to include healthier and less salty foods in their diet. These findings are consistent with those of Pereira et al [ 35 ], suggesting that children may lack the self-efficacy beliefs and self-regulatory skills needed to help them focus on the goal of following a healthy diet. Regarding sedentary behavior, participants stated that engaging in sedentary activities, such as the intense use of screen time, could work as a barrier to healthy eating in two different ways: (1) as a distraction that leads to a decreased intake of food.…”

“…Thus, individuals who rely on external factors to explain outcomes are likely to feel hopeless in the face of uncontrollable non-behavioral factors [ 45 ]. Therefore, consistent with the literature, boys believing that they do not control their food intake are not expected to make efforts to adopt healthy eating habits [ 35 ]. Conversely, girls who mentioned barriers in the Child category highlighted the internal nature of the barriers and the possibility of displaying efforts to adopt healthy eating habits.…”

Self-Efficacy to Regulate Eating Behaviors Scale for Children: A Validation Study

“…Current purposes are: (a) to examine the SEREB-C's factor structure by conducting a principal component analysis (PCA) with one half of the sample and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the second half of the sample; (b) to assess its reliability (i.e., Cronbach's alpha and omega coefficients); and (c) to assess its validity evidence regarding the relationship with three external measuresself-regulation processes towards healthy eating, declarative knowledge about healthy eating, and attitudes and perceptions towards healthy eating. Prior research shows that selfregulated behavior is predicted by high self-efficacy beliefs [4]; therefore, we hypothesized that the SEREB-C is positively associated with self-regulation processes toward healthy eating. Furthermore, as knowledge and attitudes are likely to influence eating behavior positively [4,18], we hypothesized that the SEREB-C is positively associated with declarative knowledge of, and attitudes and perceptions towards, healthy eating.…”

“…In recent years, the literature has highlighted the relevance of motivational-related factors in children's adoption and maintenance of healthy eating behaviors [2,3]. Among several motivational-related factors, self-efficacy is one of the leading contributors to children's healthy eating [4,5]. Self-efficacy can be understood as the individual's belief in their ability to perform a particular behavior or reach a specific goal successfully, including adopting healthy eating [6,7].…”

“…Research has pointed out that high self-efficacy beliefs aid children to regulate and engage in healthy eating when facing temptations or experiencing negative affect [13][14][15][16]. Self-efficacy impacts eating behavior indirectly through self-regulation strategies [4,6]; therefore, developing an eating self-efficacy scale that considers children's ability to regulate eating behaviors is needed.…”