Youth transition to university in Germany and Australia: an empirical investigation of healthy eating behaviour

Abstract

The transition from living at home to living independently has been characterised as a time of stress, and there is evidence to suggest that this transition from youth to young adulthood influences food choice. The current study explores this phenomenon and compares 18–24-year-old university students' motivation for food choice in Australia and Germany. The study extends further to investigate the difference in students' food motives and attitude towards healthy eating by students' gender. In conducting this study, data collection were carried out using a self-administered questionnaire at regional universities in Australia and Germany. About 310 students in Australia and 305 students in Germany participated in the study. Whilst we found some significant differences on food choice factors, it also seems that German students' attitudes towards healthy eating are predicted by age, gender and health, whilst the Australian students' attitudes are predicted by age, health, mood, convenience, familiarity and ethical concerns. It appears that the Australian students had a stronger relationship between these variables than did the Germans. Also, the gender variable was only a significant predictor of attitude towards healthy eating amongst the German students.

Keywords:

• obesity
• intervention strategies
• Germany
• Australia
• age and gender
• food motives
• youth transition
• attitudes
• higher education
• life style

Notes

1. BMI is defined as the individual's body weight divided by the square of their height. The formulas universally used in medicine produce a unit of measure of kg/m².