Segmenting Adolescents Around Social Influences on Their Eating Behavior: Findings From Italy

Abstract

Adolescence is a fundamental period in everyone’s life. Teenagers have for the first time the possibility to take on responsibility about their choices in many domains, building their own “lifestyle.” Among these domains, food is one of the most important considering the implications for their future health. Deep knowledge of teenagers’ behaviors and of factors affecting their choices can support tailored health policy and social marketing interventions for this population. The purpose of this article is to prospectively segment teenagers around food socialization factors as influencing factors of food preferences, attitudes, and behaviors of adolescents. A cluster analysis (CA) was performed on a sample of 4,749 respondents aged 15 and 18 years coming from Tuscany (Italy). Considering food well-being and consumer socialization frameworks, the CA used three food socialization variables related to influences and source of information/advices at intrapersonal, interpersonal, and broader societal levels. Five distinct groups were identified and described, showing deep differences in the adolescents’ food behaviors corresponding to different socialization patterns. Adolescents who reported broader food socialization at all investigated levels present better lifestyle habits. Social marketers, policy makers, and health professionals can work on specific influencing food socialization factors for tailoring marketing interventions and increasing their positive impact on adolescents’ food behaviors.