ADOLESCENTS REPORTED USAGE OF SELECTED FOODS IN RELATION TO THEIR PERCEPTIONS AND SOCIAL NORMS FOR THOSE FOODS

This paper reports a study of factors associated with the consumption of 22 diverse foods among 2082 students aged 12-15 years in Tasmania, Australia. Students provided data by completing a printed questionnair e. Multiple linear regression was used to assess how well self-reporte d usual (past) frequency of consumption of a food could be estimated f rom their perceptions of the qualities of the food (their liking for i t, its healthfulness) and their descriptive social norms for the food (its usage by parents and its usage by friends). For all foods, multip le R was significant (p<0.0001), with values ranging from 0.28-0.64 (m edian for the 22 foods being 0.49). Standardized regression coefficien ts for liking and parental usage were highly significant (p<0.0001) fo r all foods. However, consistently lower coefficients were found for f riends' usage (11 with p<0.01, but only three with p<0.0001) and healt hfulness (five with p<0.01, but only one with p<0.0001). The absolute and relative magnitudes of the regression coefficients varied substant ially between the foods. Liking was a stronger predictor than parental usage for 11 of the foods, and parental usage out-ranked liking for t he remaining 11. Regression coefficients for friends' usage and health fulness were smaller than those for liking and parental usage for all foods studied. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited