Social support influences on eating awareness in children and adolescents: the mediating effect of self-regulatory strategies

ABSTRACT

The impact of the social environment on healthy eating awareness results from complex interactions among physical, economic, cultural, interpersonal and individual characteristics. This study investigated the impact of social support and social influence on healthy eating awareness, controlling for socio-economic status, gender and age. Additionally, the mediating effect of self-regulation strategies was examined. A total of 2764 children and adolescents aged 10–17 from four European countries completed self-report measures on healthy eating awareness, social influence and the use of self-regulation strategies. Healthy eating awareness and the use of self-regulation strategies were more likely to occur among younger participants. An interaction between gender and age was related to the use of some self-regulation strategies; compared to girls, boys decreased the use of self-regulation strategies more from pre-adolescence to adolescence. Peer social influence was associated with more unhealthy eating in older participants. Results suggest a need to promote self-regulatory competences among young people in order to assist them with regulating their eating behaviours, especially in the presence of peers. Both school-based interventions and family-based interventions, focusing on self-regulation cognitions and social (peer) influence, could help children and adolescents to use self-regulatory strategies which are essential to eat healthier.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescence
• self-regulation
• social influence
• socio economic status
• eating awareness

Acknowledgements

Research was conducted at the University of Lisbon, as part of the Temptations to Eat Moderated by Personal and Environmental Self-regulatory Tools (TEMPEST) project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Margarida Gaspar de Matos http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2114-2350

Antonio L. Palmeira http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6508-0599

Tania Gaspar http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9616-0441

John B. F. De Wit http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5895-7935

Additional information

Funding

Temptations to Eat Moderated by Personal and Environmental Self-regulatory Tools (TEMPEST) project was funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme (TEMPEST project no. 223488).