Understanding changes in eating behavior during the transition to university from a self-determination theory perspective: a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this systematic review was to understand how and why eating behavior changes during the transition to university, and interpret findings from a self-determination theory perspective (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Methods: We searched six databases and identified 51 articles with findings involving changes in eating behavior during the transition to university. Results: During this transition, students eat less food, less healthy, and less regularly. These changes are mostly among students who move into a university residence or off-campus housing, with few changes in eating behavior among students who continue living at home. Yet, incoming students with food skills and experience living independently seem less likely to experience these changes. Conclusions: The university context offers challenges to eating healthy. Students’ satisfaction of psychological needs may explain observed changes in habits, self-regulation, and motivation.

Keywords:

• Eating behavior
• self-determination theory
• transition to university

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Akshay Bhasin and Dana Ronaghan for their assistance in the literature search and quality assessment of articles. We also want to thank Dr. Patti-Jean Naylor for her suggestions and support.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of Canada and received approval from the Human Research Ethics Board of University of Victoria.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this manuscript.

Notes

1 The terms “college” and “university” are often used interchangeably to refer to post-secondary (i.e., “higher”) education. For simplicity, we use the term “university” throughout this review.

2 There were three instances of authors publishing two articles involving the same sample of participants, but with different foci and analyses.

3 Most studies did not report sufficient information (e.g., t-value) to derive an exact effect size, and so we followed recommendations to calculate an average standard deviation from the two time points. We also converted any reported effect sizes to d.⁹¹

4 Analysis of unhealthy foods includes findings regarding junk foods, sugary foods, processed foods, fast foods, and sugary beverages. For studies reporting multiple types of each food (e.g., raw vegetables, cooked vegetables), we analyzed an average effect size for the respective food category. Findings from four studies were not included in these effect size estimates because they did not report sufficient information^47,92,93 or because the closest follow-up measurement occasion was beyond students’ first year at university.⁵⁰

5 One cross-sectional study was not included in these analyses because the authors only report the percentage of certain macronutrients in students’ diets.³³

6 Few studies we reviewed distinguished between eating behavior changes during transition to residence or independent off-campus living, although some evidence suggested that students living independently off-campus may eat even fewer traditionally healthy foods than those living in residence.⁴¹