Psychosocial Factors Associated with Young Elementary School Children's Intentions to Consume Legumes: A Test of the Theory of Reasoned Action

Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this study was to test the utility of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) in explaining young elementary school children's intention to consume legumes.

Methods

A survey was conducted with children in an urban, multicultural community in Massachusetts. A total of 336 children participated. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the strength of the relationship between attitude and subjective norm and intention.

Results

Although attitude was significantly associated with intention, the pseudo-R² for the regression model that included only the TRA constructs was extremely low (.01). Adding demographic factors and preference improved the model's predictive ability, but attitude was no longer significant.

Conclusion

The results of this study do not provide support for the predictive utility of the TRA with young elementary school children for this behavior, when demographic factors are accounted for. Hedonic factors, rather than reasoned judgments, may help drive children's intentions.

Keywords

Legumes Children Theory of Reasoned Action Prevention Research Manuscript format: research Research purpose: modeling/relationship testing Study design: nonexperimental Outcome measure: behavioral Setting: school Health focus: nutrition Strategy: behavior change Target population age: youth Target population circumstances: geographic location Other: health promotion

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