Theory of planned behavior and college student 24-hour dietary recalls

Abstract

Objective: The transition to college is marked by poorer eating behaviors, making emerging adulthood a particularly salient intervention point for improving lifelong health. The present study aims to better understand what psychosocial factors predict eating behaviors of college students using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Participants & Methods: Dietary recalls were analyzed the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015 scoring system for 67 university students between the ages of 18 and 25 (70.1% female; 49.3% White, 20.9% Black/African American, 13.4% Asian). Results: Haye’s PROCESS Model 6 was used. The full model accounted for a significant amount of variance in HEI-2015 scores (F[3, 63] = 3.09, p = .033, R² = .12). The final model suggested a significant indirect effect of PBC on the relation between ATT and HEI-2015 (β = .859, SE = .637, 95% CI [.009, 2.482]). Conclusions: Although some college students might have favorable attitudes, only those who believe this is within their control actually ate a (somewhat) healthier diet.

Keywords:

• Emerging adulthood
• health education
• mental health
• nutrition
• theory of planned behavior

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board at the University of North Texas.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes

1 All analyses were re-run using the original 5-item PBC scale to determine if main outcomes would substantially differ with original items.

2 Because the PBC scale was altered based on the reliability results, both models were run with and without the corrected scale to determine the impact on overall results. Inclusion of this item did not change which predictors were statistically significant or the overall pattern of results.