Stakeholders’ perspectives on improving adolescents’ dietary behaviours in the school setting: a qualitative study

Devine, Lauren; Gallagher, Alison M.; Hill, Andrew J.

doi:10.1017/s0029665121002652

Cited by 2 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…However, caterers felt that to provide school meals that appealed to adolescents, compromising the healthiness of the meals would be required (69) . In addition to taste, visual appeal (49,69,72,73) , familiarity (59,66,73) and quality (67) of items served within school have been cited as influential factors on adolescents' food choices. Moreover, dissatisfaction with the quality of school food has also been reported to encourage Scottish adolescents to leave the school premises and source food externally (74) .…”

Section: Taste Preferences Visual Appeal Familiarity and Food Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, Malaysian adolescents have reported skipping their school meals due to limited money availability (75) . In addition to price, adolescents' consider portion size (49,73) and value for money (49,65,72,76) when making choices on food in school, with preference to opt for foods with higher satiety (49,70,76) . In NI, adolescents associated healthier options in school with poor value for money as they perceived them to be more expensive, with lower satiety value (49) , which is similar to a study in Malaysia, where school principals' and catering staff noted that adolescents would opt for the most filling items regardless of their nutritional value (70) .…”

Section: Price Portion Size and Value For Moneymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During adolescence, when time spent with peers increases and parental control tends to dimmish (62,80) , individuals' dietary behaviours can become influenced by their peers (81,82) , often impacting negatively on their food choices, with increased consumption of energydense foods of a poor nutritional value (83) . The influence of peers on adolescents' food choices is also echoed in research within the school-setting, with school staff (71,72,84) , parents (84) and adolescents (49,54,55,57,73,75,78) reporting peers to be influential on adolescents' school-based dietary choices. When making dietary decisions in school, many adolescents place importance on social acceptability and conforming to what is considered normal eating behaviours among their peers (49,54,57,73,78) .…”

Section: Peer Influencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several suggestions to improve adolescents' dietary choices within the school-setting in the UK have been reported. Adolescents (73) and school staff (72) in NI have proposed incentives as a potential strategy to encourage the selection of healthier items served in the school canteen, with both stakeholder groups recommending recognition, social and financial rewards as suitable incentives for this population. Similarly, adolescents' from socially disadvantaged areas across NI have reported reward schemes as an acceptable approach to improve food choices in school, with adolescents' from rural schools favouring group rewards such as class trips and urban schools having preference for individual-type rewards such as vouchers and clothes (49) .…”

Section: Recommendations To Improve Adolescents' School-based Dietary...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other suggestions included the ability to offer a 'meal deal', increased variety on menus, improvements to school-food (quality and food offered), the promotion of the healthier options and student-led initiatives to facilitate improved dietary choices in school (72) .…”

Section: Recommendations To Improve Adolescents' School-based Dietary...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improving adolescents' dietary behaviours in the school-setting: challenges and opportunities

2023

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Adolescence is a critical time of physical, psychological and social development, and thus, optimal nutritional intakes are required during this life stage. Despite this, adolescence is recognised as a period of nutritional vulnerability, with many reportedly failing to meet current dietary guidelines. The school-setting presents a favourable environment to intervene and promote positive dietary behaviours and is also inclusive regardless of socio-economic status. However, a lack of consensus exists on how best to utilise schools to facilitate improvements in dietary behaviours among this age group. Whilst previous research has focused on identifying the factors motivating dietary choices within the school-setting, less is known on the optimum strategies to enhance these dietary choices which could positively contribute to the design of future interventions. It is reported that adolescents have good nutritional knowledge, although this does not appear to be a central consideration when making their dietary choices. Alternative factors at the individual (taste, visual appeal, familiarity, food quality, price, portion size, value for money, time/ convenience), social (peer influence), physical (product placement) and macro environment (food availability) levels have been frequently cited as important influences on adolescents' dietary choices in school. Although school-based interventions have shown potential in achieving positive dietary change among adolescents, more research is needed to determine the most effective methods in improving dietary behaviours in schools. This review summarises the key factors which influence adolescents' school-based dietary choices and the effectiveness of previously conducted interventions, identifying promising components for consideration when developing future dietary interventions within the school-setting.

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Section: Taste Preferences Visual Appeal Familiarity and Food Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Price Portion Size and Value For Moneymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Peer Influencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Recommendations To Improve Adolescents' School-based Dietary...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Recommendations To Improve Adolescents' School-based Dietary...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improving adolescents' dietary behaviours in the school-setting: challenges and opportunities

2023

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The acceptability of a peer-led intervention to promote healthy dietary behaviours among adolescents in the school-setting: a qualitative investigation

Devine,

Hill,

Briggs

et al. 2023

Proc. Nutr. Soc.

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UK adolescents' nutritional intakes are currently suboptimal (1) , and thus, effective and sustainable dietary interventions are urgently needed to improve health outcomes among this population. School-based, student-led initiatives have been proposed as a suitable approach to aid in improving adolescents' dietary behaviours (2) , albeit, evidence of such strategies remains limited. To address this, a peer-led pilot feasibility intervention was designed and implemented in the post-primary school-setting to encourage adolescents to improve their dietary choices in the school canteen at lunchtime. The aim of this study was to qualitatively assess the acceptability of this intervention among participating pupils, peer-leaders and school staff.The peer-led intervention was a 12-week pilot feasibility cluster-randomised controlled trial, targeting Year 8 pupils who had transitioned to the first year of post-primary school. A convenience sample of four post-primary schools (n = 3 intervention; n = 1 control) in Northern Ireland (NI) were recruited and Year 8 pupils (aged 11-12 yrs) and Year 13 peer-leaders (aged 16-17 yrs) were invited to participate. In the intervention schools, peer-leaders were trained to assist with the design, implementation, and monitoring of various intervention components across the 12-week intervention period. Selected intervention components (e.g. labelling strategies, menu displays, placement manipulations and reward schemes) were guided by previous work conducted with NI school staff (2) and pupils (3) . Following completion of the intervention, semi-structured one-to-one interviews with school staff (n = 6) and focus groups with Year 8 pupils (n = 21) and Year 13 peer-leaders (n = 28) were conducted between April to May 2022 to explore the acceptability of the intervention from a range of stakeholder perspectives. Discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. All transcripts were imported to NVivo12 software for data management and analysed thematically using a deductive and inductive approach (4) .Six overarching themes were generated from the discussions, namely: intervention acceptability (perceptions of intervention components, level of enjoyment, intervention strengths, willingness to participate in the future); participation rates (rationale for participation); intervention effectiveness (perceived impact on dietary choices); intervention challenges (recruitment barriers, implementation barriers); intervention sustainability (short-term, long-term), and suggestions for improvement (strategies to overcome intervention barriers, general recommendations to improve the study).Findings confirm that this peer-led intervention was feasible and the intervention components were acceptable among this population, with participants citing interest to take part if the study were to be conducted again. This study also highlighted several barriers to intervention implementation, for example, canteen supply issues, resulting in menus and labels not aligning with unanticipated food items ...

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Stakeholders’ perspectives on improving adolescents’ dietary behaviours in the school setting: a qualitative study

Cited by 2 publications

References 3 publications

Improving adolescents' dietary behaviours in the school-setting: challenges and opportunities

Improving adolescents' dietary behaviours in the school-setting: challenges and opportunities

The acceptability of a peer-led intervention to promote healthy dietary behaviours among adolescents in the school-setting: a qualitative investigation

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