https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9176-8255
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ABSTRACT
Although insight in how adolescents’ food intake is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is critical, knowledge is limited. Hence, this longitudinal study (N = 691, Mage = 14.30, SDage = 0.62; 52.5% female) investigated changes in adolescents’ unhealthy (sugar-sweetened beverages, sweet snacks, savoury snacks) and healthy (fruit and vegetables) food intake (in total, obtained from home, and from outside the home) from pre-pandemic (Spring 2019) to the first lockdown (Spring 2020) and to six months later (Fall 2020). Moreover, several moderating factors were assessed. Results showed that the intake of unhealthy and healthy food in total and obtained from outside the home decreased during the lockdown. Six months later, unhealthy food intake returned to pre-pandemic levels, while healthy food intake remained lower. COVID-19 stressful life events and maternal food intake further qualified these longer-term changes in intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit and vegetables, respectively. Future work is warranted to elucidate longer-term COVID-19 effects on adolescents’ food intake.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the participating schools, adolescents, and parents for their contribution to this research project. Moreover, we would like to thank all the student assistants for their help during the data collection of this project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The data used for the current study are available upon request from the corresponding author.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2022.2115999