Perceptions of eating and food preparation behaviours for urban private school students in India

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescents' perceptions of eating and culinary behaviours have important implications for their health and nutritional profiles. The purpose of the current investigation is to understand Indian adolescents' perceptions of healthy eating and meal preparation. Methods: Year nine students (n = 1026; 35% males) aged 14-16 years from nine English-speaking private secondary schools in Kolkata, India completed a paperbased, self-reported questionnaire which included questions about facilitators and barriers to healthy eating and meal preparation. Cross-tabulation analyses were performed to examine gender differences on the healthy eating measures. Results: Overall, the adolescents highlighted a number of key facilitators and barriers to healthy eating and meal preparation. The preference for water over sugar-sweetened beverages was cited as the most popular facilitator of healthy eating by adolescents (65.7%). The most commonly perceived barrier to healthy eating was the need for strong motivation to consume a healthy diet (56.1%). The importance of using fresh produce in food preparation (76.5%) emerged as the most prominent component of meal preparation. Conversely, the use of food lists was perceived as the least important aspect of healthy meal preparation (54.2%). In general, girls showed more positive attitudes towards healthy eating and meal preparation compared to boys. Conclusion: This understanding of Indian adolescents' perceptions of healthy eating and meal preparation suggests the development of skills-focussed nutrition education programmes to support young people in preparing and consuming healthy meals.

Understanding children’s perspectives of the influences on their dietary behaviours

“…These findings match those observed in previous studies conducted with children and adolescents in other populations which showed that the taste, smell, texture, appearance, as well as their emotional attachment to foods (e.g. pleasure and disgust) were more influential on their food choices than the nutritional value of food (10,11) . It has been suggested that at this age, the concept of nutrition and diet-related diseases may be too abstract to comprehend or perceived as distant and irrelevant (30) .…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine children's perspectives of the influences on their dietary behaviour in Singapore. The use of qualitative methods with children directly allowed us to gather rich data from them through their perspectives, therefore contributing to the limited but growing body of literature in Asia (10,11) and locally (43,44) . However, there are some limitations to be considered.…”

“…Using socio-ecological frameworks, previous studies have examined multiple levels of influence and the interplay among these levels (9) . For example, on the intrapersonal level, children's dietary choices were found to be intrinsically influenced by their knowledge, skills, taste preference and familiarity with the food (9)(10)(11) . Interpersonal influences often come from children's families (12,13) and peers (14) , while community influences include schools (15) and the physical environment (e.g., the proximity of food stores) (16) , while macrosystem influences include policies, media and advertisements (9) .…”

Promotion of Healthy Eating in Spanish High Schools

“…Most adolescents either skip breakfast or have an unhealthy or inappropriate one [ 6 , 14 , 21 ]. Thus, educational strategies promoting healthy eating and for this age group are of key relevance, as habits acquired in childhood and adolescence are usually maintained in adulthood [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ].…”

Psychosocial Determinants of Fruit and Vegetable Intake in Japanese Adolescents: A School-Based Study in Japan

“…In addition, the average score of social support in female adolescents was 1.4-fold higher than in males, indicating the stronger social support provided by family, friends, etc., may strongly affect the adolescents' choice to diet [31,43]. A study in nine private secondary schools of urban India also found that over 60% of students (aged 14-16 years) thought their current F&V intakes are adequate [44], although previous research showed inadequate number of F&V intakes among many of these students [40]. Recent studies showed that parental support was associated with higher F&V consumption among Texas 8th-and 11th-grade students in USA [45] and 10th-and 12th-grade students in Dubai [46].…”