Navigation
Preadolescents’ healthy eating behavior: peeping through the social norms approach
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]
Year: 2020
