Individual, behavioural and home environmental factors associated with eating behaviours in young adolescents

Abstract

This study aimed to examine individual, behavioural and home environmental factors associated with frequency of consumption of fruit, vegetables and energy-dense snacks among adolescents. Adolescents aged 11–12 years (n = 521, 48% boys) completed a paper-based questionnaire during class-time which included a Food Frequency Questionnaire assessing their consumption of fruit, vegetables, and energy-dense (ED) snacks, and items assessing habits, self-efficacy, eating at the television (TV), eating with parents, parenting practices, and home availability and accessibility of foods. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that eating fruit and vegetables while watching TV and home availability and accessibility of fruit and vegetables were positively associated with frequency of fruit consumption and vegetable consumption, while home accessibility of ED snack foods was negatively associated with frequency of fruit consumption. Habit for eating ED snack foods in front the TV, eating ED snack foods while watching TV, and home availability of ED snacks were positively associated with frequency of ED snack consumption. This study has highlighted the importance of a healthy home environment for promoting fruit and vegetable intake in early adolescents and also suggests that, if snacking while TV viewing occurs, this could be a good opportunity for promoting fruit and vegetable intake. These findings are likely to be useful for supporting the development of multi-faceted interventions and aid us in knowing what advice to give to parents to help them to help their young adolescents to develop and maintain healthy eating habits.

Is Adolescents’ Food Intake Associated with Exposure to the Food Intake of Their Mothers and Best Friends?

“…Another mechanism that could potentially explain our findings is the clustering of food parenting practices. Illustratively, parents who serve as healthy role models for their children's food intake, also use other structured food parenting practices (e.g., rules, home food availability, and boundaries) [45][46][47][48] that may explain healthy food intake similarities between mothers and their children. Additionally, since previous studies have shown that food preference and intake are influenced by genetic factors [49][50][51], food intake similarities between mothers and their children could also be due to genetic resemblance.…”

Reducing screen-time and unhealthy snacking in 9–11 year old children: the Kids FIRST pilot randomised controlled trial

“…Five response categories were available: (i) never/I don't eat (fruit), (ii) less than one portion a day, (iii) 1-2 portions a day, (iv) 3-5 portions a day, (v) 5 or more portions a day. The frequency of food consumption was converted to a daily equivalent, which is an established method that has been used successfully in other dietary studies [35]. The frequency of consumption of the four food categories was converted to a continuous daily equivalents as follows: never (0 per d); less than one portion a day (0 •5…”

“…Children were asked four questions about their habits for eating snack foods in front of the television using the valid Self-Report Behavioural Automaticity Index (SRBAI) [36], which has been successfully used in children of this age [35]. They were asked the same four questions regarding eating sweet and savoury snacks, eating fruit and vegetables as a snack, eating fruit and vegetables in front of the TV, and regarding habit for watching TV.…”

Stimulating UK Adolescents’ Seafood Consumption

“…Knowledge of adolescents' fish consumption is very limited, but is certainly less than government recommendations (Groot, Ouwehand & Jolles, 2012) and probably less than that of the general population, since for example, it is known that individuals aged 16-24 years are less likely than other age groups to meet the five-a-day recommendation for fruit and vegetables (Mintel, 2012). It has been shown that adolescents often eat snacks, especially in front of the TV, and given the availability of both healthier snacks containing fruit or vegetables, and energy-dense snacks, they tend to prefer the latter (Pearson et al, 2016). Parents have been shown to have a more positive attitude towards fish products than adolescents (Olsen et al, 2008), and this may be partly due to them tending to have a better understanding of the principles of healthy eating (Laguna-Camacho & Booth, 2015).…”