Applying the temporal self-regulation theory to understand sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among Chinese college students

ABSTRACT

Objective

Worldwide, there is a growing trend that college students are consuming more and more sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). In order to develop effective intervention strategies, it is important to explore what social-cognitive factors impact on college students’ SSB consumption. Building on the temporal self-regulation theory (TST), the current study aimed to examine the effects of intention, behavioral prepotency, and self-regulatory capacity on SSB consumption among college students.

Design

Data were collected from five hundred Chinese college students online. Participants self-reported their intention, behavioral prepotency (environmental cues and habits), self-regulatory capacity, and behaviors of SSB consumption.

Results

Study findings showed that intention, behavioral prepotency, and self-regulatory capacity accounted for 32.9% of variance in SSB consumption. In terms of the direct effects, intention, behavioral prepotency, and self-regulatory capacity were significantly associated with the SSB consumption among college students. In addition, self-regulatory capacity and habits but not the environmental cues showed significant moderation effects on the intention-SSB consumption path, indicating that individual factors rather than environmental cues influenced the intention-behavior path of SSB consumption among college students.

Conclusion

Findings of the current study demonstrated that the TST can be used to explain and understand the impacts of social-cognitive factors on college students’ SSB consumption. Future research can apply TST to develop effective intervention programs targeting the reduction of SSB consumption among college students.

KEYWORDS:

• Sugar-sweetened beverages
• SSB consumption
• temporal self-regulation theory
• intention
• behavioral prepotency
• self-regulatory capacity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors contribution

CYJ and CQZ developed the study; CYJ conducted the data collection; HLX conducted the data analysis, wrote the first draft of the paper, and edited the paper; GDZ edited the paper; CQZ edited the paper and supervised the whole study.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Institutional review board statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University [Ref: 2022-0627-0252].

Informed consent

All participants in this study electronically provided informed consent to participate.