Junior high school students (2,082) in Tasmania, Australia, were surveyed u
sing a printed questionnaire. For 22 commonly-used foods collectively, MANO
VA indicated that rural students differed significantly from urban students
in their consumption frequency for the foods, their perception of the usag
e of the foods by their parents and their friends, their liking for the foo
ds and their perceptions of those foods' healthfulness. Regression analyses
for the 22 foods separately indicated that liking for a food and parental
usage of it were generally significantly linked to the respondent's frequen
cy of using it; there were few urban-rural differences in this pattern. A f
ood's healthfulness las perceived by the respondent) and friends' usage of
it were significantly linked to personal usage frequency only for a minorit
y of foods; the regression analyses suggested that rural students gave less
weight than urban students to health considerations and to perceived peer
behavior in their food choices. These results suggest differences in food c
ognition between urban and rural adolescents.