Sawka et al (2015) produces this systematic review examining the impact of friendship networks (including factors such as friends’ dietary behavior, popularity) on an individual’s dietary behavior among children and adolescents. To be eligible studies had to include participants aged between 6 and 18, to measure the subject’s friendship network as well as habitual dietary behavior for both the participant and their friend(s). From 9041 articles retrieved from 6 online scientific databases, a total of seven studies matched the criteria and were included in this review. A connection was found between an individual’s unhealthy food consumption with friends’ unhealthy dietary intake, especially stronger for boys compared with girls. Furthermore an individual’s total energy intake was correlated to that of their best friends’. Even an individual’s unhealthy diet consumption tended to become similar to friends’ poor food choice over time. Similarities between friends’ healthy food consumption and intake of breakfast were inconclusive. But this review highlights the influence of friends on unhealthy diet decisions among adolescents and provides us with a greater insight into adolescent dietary behavior. If healthier diet behaviors could be instilled into these adolescent friendship groups, unhealthy damaging eating habits could be possibly cut down, which could improve weight status among the youth population. [NPID: psychosocial, friendship, children, adolescents, social, breakfast, decision making, food choice]

This current study surveyed 757 sets of adolescents and parents to test the amount of influence parents have on their adolescents compared to the power their peers have, with regard to fruit and vegetable consumption in this case. It was found that parents still hold more influence on the adolescents’ fruit and vegetable intake, with the importance of descriptive norms (what they do) greater than injunctive norms (what they say). The researchers help raise awareness of how critical parents still are even at the adolescent stage, and provide a better understanding of what influences adolescent healthy eating and how parents and peers can have a significant effect. Pederson et al (2015) implicate that: healthy eating interventions should aim at strengthening self-efficacy and positive outcome expectations among adolescents; the family context should be included when implementing healthy eating interventions; and parents should be made more aware of their influence on their children’s healthy eating. [NPID: psychosocial, adolescents, parents, parental influence, fruit, vegetables, FV intake, descriptive norms, injunctive norms, self-efficacy, family context]

Although evidence of mother-child similarities in dietary behavior has been identified so far mostly using cross-sectional design, this study delivers a longitudinal look into the association - firstly examining whether maternal snacking can predict changes in the adolescents’ snacking over time and secondly, inspecting the relevance of the adolescents’ television viewing time to the strength of the mother-child snacking association. The hypothesis was that television viewing may increase the urge to snack what the mother ate later on, through food advertisement exposure and mindless eating for example. 2051 adolescents (Mage baseline = 13.81; 51.5% boys) were asked to report on their snacking and television viewing three times, with intervals of one year, and in addition the 1080 mothers reported on their snacking at baseline. The results indicated that maternal snacking predicted the adolescents’ snacking over time, with this observed effect more pronounced among the adolescents who watch a lot of television. The importance of mothers in forming adolescents’ prospective snacking is highlighted by this study, as well as the relevance of assessing home environmental factors that may influence maternal effects on their children’s snacking. [NPID: psychosocial, moms, mothers, snacking, adolescents, TV, television]

In this study thirty three studies were selected and reviewed - of which 17 were correlational and 16 were experimental design - to examine the role that social norms play in shaping young people’s diet consumption, with particular attention on for whom and when peer social norms become relevant in how much a young person eats. Significant associations between norms and food intake were found in all but one correlational study, while all experimental studies discovered effects of norm manipulations on diet and some data showed behavioral spillage effects of norms. The literature synthesis implemented by the current study pointed out: identification with the norm referent group and eating-related habit strength moderate the effects of social norms on food consumption; forceful injunctive norms were not related to dietary intake; and the influence of norms seemed restricted to typical foods eaten in the presence of peers. These moderators discussed are relevant to psychological theory, and not only that, these findings have important implications for research and could be potentially applicable in the development of social norm-based interventions aimed at enhancing the dietary consumption of our young population. [NPID: psychosocial, social norms, habit, injunctive norms, peers, peer pressure]

Since perceived peer eating norms have been shown to influence dietary behaviour, this 2016 study investigated whether certain personality traits are linked with leading eating habits similar to perceived peer eating habits. One thousand and fifty-six young adults were asked about their perceptions on the level of sugar-sweetened soda (SSS) and sweet pastries (SP) consumed by their peers. The participants also reported their own intakes of these foods and drinks. Perceived peer eating norms for both sugar-sweetened soda and sweet pastries predicted frequency of consumption. Having a belief that peers were frequently consuming SSS and SP was associated with elevated personal consumption of both. Those with low self-control, compared with high self-control, were more likely to adhere to peer norms for SP, but not for SSS. But trait social acceptance needs did not significantly moderate similarity between peer norms and personal consumption for either SSS or SP. Robinson et al. (2016) conclude that the degree to which young adults adhere to descriptive peer dietary norms may depend on their self-control, meaning that those with low self-control may be less able to block out social influence of peer norms on dietary behavior. [NPID: psychosocial, personality traits, perceived peer habits, peer pressure, sugar-sweetened soda, sweet pastries, self-control, social acceptance, peer norms]

Tashiro et al. (2020) conducted questionnaire surveys in disaster-affected areas following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, to assess the relationship between the motivation to participate in cooking classes and the classes’ impact on the individuals. The survey examined the following effects of class participation: increase in new acquaintances and friends; more excursion opportunities; potential for gaining motivation; and a new sense of life purpose. The surveyors obtained 257 valid responses from 15 cooking venues. Several combinations of motivation and eating patterns were associated with the respondents’ perceived participation effects. For example, people who reported to eat alone and were motivated to enhance their nutritional intake were more likely to make new acquaintances and friends. Eating alone and being motivated for increasing personal cooking skills was linked with gaining additional excursion opportunities. Conversely, those who ate alone and whose drives were to improve their nutritional consumption were less likely to increase their excursion opportunities. The results indicate the success of the cooking class, as participation provided the residents with nutritional health support and social benefits. [NPID: psychosocial, Japan, earthquake, tsunami, class participation, motivation, life purpose, purpose, eating alone, loneliness, social context, friendship]

The purpose of this 2020 study was to analyze the key underlying mechanisms by which preadolescents’ healthy eating behaviors are influenced by peer-related social factors. Ragelienė & Grønhøj recruited 278 Lithuanian preadolescents from a public school, and administered them with questionnaires on sociodemographics, peer-related social norms of healthy eating, food intake, vegetable preference, need for peer approval, and feeling of belonging. The results indicated that social self-efficacy predicts feeling of belonging to the peer group and need for peer approval, while feeling of belonging and need for peer approval predict actual intake of vegetables. However, neither feeling of belonging nor need for peer approval predicted descriptive norms of healthy eating. Also, descriptive norms were not related to consumption of vegetables, which surprised the researchers. But vegetable preference predicted actual intake of vegetables. Peers’ social norms of healthy eating did not predict vegetable preference either. These findings emphasize the importance of social relations when encouraging preadolescents to eat healthy foods. [NPID: psychosocial, social context, social factors, perceived peer norms, peer pressure, sociodemographics, vegetable preference]