Company and meal choices considered by Nordic adolescents

Abstract

This article examines the meal choices considered by Nordic adolescents in two social situations: for themselves and for the family. In addition, the frequency of family meals is compared between the countries studied. The survey data (n = 1539) were collected during 2006–2007 from 9th grade students (aged 14–17 years) in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Analysis was based on both quantitative variables and open‐ended data. Family meals were found to be less common among Finnish respondents than in the remaining data. In all countries but Denmark, the number of parents in the family had an effect on the frequency of family meals. Meals echoing or fully meeting the structural definition of a ‘proper meal’ were most common when describing meals for the family. The difference between the two social situations was most apparent for those who mentioned ‘Fast food dishes’ for themselves. Gender differences in open‐ended questions were smallest in Denmark and most apparent in Norway. Future studies should focus not only on how many of adolescents eat in what is termed an unhealthy way but also on how they themselves perceive and conceptualize eating, and what kinds of justifications they give to their everyday choices in different social contexts.

Children in marketing: A review, synthesis and research agenda

“…Under this topic, we see research mostly focusing on the children's knowledge and perceptions about nutrition and food, the factors influencing their diets. For instance, researchers have investigated children's knowledge and attitudes related to nutrition (Øvrebø, 2014), their perceptions about food well‐being (Hémar‐Nicolas & Ezan, 2019) and of ‘kids food’ vs. ‘adults food’ (Elliott, 2011), child dietary behaviour (McKeown & Nelson, 2018) and factors affecting such diets (Roberts & Pettigrew, 2013), frequency of and reasons for children's special diet consumption (Parviainen et al, 2017) and their meal choices for themselves and for their families (Janhonen et al, 2013) as well as the impact of food knowledge and food patterns on their dietary choices (Von Normann, 2009). Other than these, two papers focus on more niche areas; Makhal et al (2020) examined children's edibility perceptions of suboptimal food products with appearance defects, and Maimaran and Fishbach (2014) explored the relationship between mentioning the instrumental benefits of foods and children's consumption and inferences about its taste.…”

‘Don't give us an assignment where we have to use spinach!’: food choice and discourse in home and consumer studies

“…This means that students’ prior knowledge and cultural backgrounds are used as a starting point (Cullbrand, ). Since Nordic children increasingly influence family meal decisions (Janhonen et al ., ), and students find choice important in the school canteen (Prell, ), students of HCS could, for example, choose their own recipes and/or ingredients. However, such freedom takes some control away from teachers, who view food in HCS as a pedagogic tool (Höijer et al ., ).…”