Why do Adolescents Eat Low Nutrient Snacks Between Meals? An Analysis of Behavioral Determinants with the Fishbein and Ajzen Model

Abstract

This article presents determinants of eating sweet and fat snacks between meals by adolescents (12–15 years). A preliminary qualitative study focused on eliciting students' interpretation of the self-rated terminology ‘low nutrient sweet and fat snacks’ and the development of a written questionnaire following the principles of the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1980).

In a quantitative study a questionnaire was administered to 560 students in the first and second grade of Dutch secondary education. In the data-analysis frequent and moderate users were compared. Frequent users had a more positive attitude towards the intake of sweet and fat snacks than moderate users. The intention to consume sweet snacks was more positive for frequent users. As opposed to frequent users, moderate users had a negative intention towards consuming fat snacks between meals. Moreover, moderate users experienced more social influence against the intake of both snacks than the frequent users. This study demonstrates the usefulness of the theory of reasoned action in relation to the self-rated consumption of sweet and fat snacks eaten between meals. In predicting intention to consume such snacks, attitude turned out to be more important than subjective norm. Finally, the correlation between actual eating behavior as reported by the students, and the behavioral intentions was relatively moderate which was probably caused by inconsistency between intention and behavior.

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