IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v41y2013icp184-192.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender differences in the influence of food safety and health concerns on dietary and physical activity habits

Author

Listed:
  • Worsley, Anthony
  • Wang, Wei C.
  • Hunter, Wendy

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine middle aged Australians’ dietary and physical activity habits and to investigate their relationships with their food safety concerns, body weight, demographics, and personal values (guiding principles in people’s lives). A mail survey was conducted among a random sample of men and women aged between 38 and 79years; 1095 usable questionnaires were obtained. Multi-group structural equation modelling was used to examine the relationships between the variables among men and women. Findings suggest that food safety concerns played central roles in the relationships between demographics, body weight, personal values and dietary and physical activity habits for both men and women. However, there were significant differences between the genders in the ways the food safety concerns impacted these relationships. For example, body weight was negatively related to women’s physical activity behaviours but not men’s; the concerns were associated with dining out habits among women but not men; age influenced women’s concerns and physical activity but not those of men. Therefore, men and women’s dietary and physical activity habits were impacted directly by personal background characteristics, body weight, and personal values, and indirectly through food safety concerns. The implications of the study are that for food policy makers, a gendered focus on food safety concerns, and other relatively malleable variables such as personal values, may be more likely to change dietary and physical activity habits in the short term than a focus on more stable socio-demographic characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Worsley, Anthony & Wang, Wei C. & Hunter, Wendy, 2013. "Gender differences in the influence of food safety and health concerns on dietary and physical activity habits," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 184-192.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:41:y:2013:i:c:p:184-192
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.05.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919213000626
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.05.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Belk, Russell W, 1985. "Materialism: Trait Aspects of Living in the Material World," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(3), pages 265-280, December.
    2. Roos, Eva & Lahelma, Eero & Virtanen, Mikko & Prättälä, Ritva & Pietinen, Pirjo, 1998. "Gender, socioeconomic status and family status as determinants of food behaviour," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(12), pages 1519-1529, June.
    3. Glass, Thomas A. & McAtee, Matthew J., 2006. "Behavioral science at the crossroads in public health: Extending horizons, envisioning the future," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1650-1671, April.
    4. Penny Esterik, 1999. "Right to food; right to feed; right to be fed. The intersection of women's rights and the right to food," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 16(2), pages 225-232, June.
    5. Grunert, Suzanne C. & Juhl, Hans Jorn, 1995. "Values, environmental attitudes, and buying of organic foods," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 39-62, March.
    6. N/A, 2007. "Economic Overview," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 200(1), pages 2-3, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tan, Teck Ming & Makkonen, Hannu & Kaur, Puneet & Salo, Jari, 2022. "How do ethical consumers utilize sharing economy platforms as part of their sustainable resale behavior? The role of consumers’ green consumption values," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    2. Peng, Jingsi & Min, Shi, 2021. "Does Internet Use Improve Rural Residents' Behavior of Food Safety?," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315238, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dave Webb & Janine Wong, 2014. "Exploring Antecedents of Charitable Giving and Their Impact on Subjective Well-Being in Singapore," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 65-87, May.
    2. Kilbourne, William & Grünhagen, Marko & Foley, Janice, 2005. "A cross-cultural examination of the relationship between materialism and individual values," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 624-641, October.
    3. Küper, Inken & Edinger-Schons, Laura Marie, 2020. "Is sharing up for sale? Monetary exchanges in the sharing economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 223-234.
    4. Jean-Pierre Lachaud, 2007. "Les déterminants de l'inactivité économique et de la non-scolarisation des enfants aux Comores et à Madagascar. Existe-t-il une courbe de Kuznets ?," Documents de travail 140, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    5. Rodríguez, Elsa Mirta M. & Lacaze, María Victoria & Lupín, Beatriz, 2007. "Willingness to pay for organic food in Argentina: evidence from a consumer survey," Nülan. Deposited Documents 1300, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Centro de Documentación.
    6. Zhao, Taiyang & Lu, Yan & Lynette Wang, Valerie & Wu, Banggang & Chen, Zhi & Song, Wei & Zhou, Liying, 2023. "Shared but unhappy? Detrimental effects of using shared products on psychological ownership and consumer happiness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    7. Soo Tan & Siok Tambyah & Ah Kau, 2006. "The Influence of Value Orientations and Demographics on Quality-of-Life Perceptions: Evidence from a National Survey of Singaporeans," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 78(1), pages 33-59, August.
    8. Martin, Molly A. & Lippert, Adam M., 2012. "Feeding her children, but risking her health: The intersection of gender, household food insecurity and obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(11), pages 1754-1764.
    9. Liselot Hudders & Mario Pandelaere, 2012. "The Silver Lining of Materialism: The Impact of Luxury Consumption on Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 411-437, June.
    10. Umberson, Debra & Liu, Hui & Mirowsky, John & Reczek, Corinne, 2011. "Parenthood and trajectories of change in body weight over the life course," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(9), pages 1323-1331.
    11. Khalid Mehmood & Fauzia Jabeen & Shilpa Iyanna & Hui Zhang & Patrice Piccardi & Nagendra Singh Nehra, 2024. "Exploring drivers of behavioral willingness to reduce plastic consumption and socially responsible consumption behavior: A stimulus–organism–behavior–consequence paradigm based environmental managemen," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 3098-3118, July.
    12. Bryant, Toba & Raphael, Dennis & Schrecker, Ted & Labonte, Ronald, 2011. "Canada: A land of missed opportunity for addressing the social determinants of health," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 44-58, June.
    13. Kapferer, Jean-Noël & Valette-Florence, Pierre, 2019. "How self-success drives luxury demand: An integrated model of luxury growth and country comparisons," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 273-287.
    14. Kuhar, Ales & Juvancic, L., 2012. "Determinants of purchasing behaviour for organic and integrated fruits and vegetables in Slovenia," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(2), pages 1-14.
    15. Eirini Flouri, 2005. "Adult Materialism/Postmaterialism And Later Mental Health: The Role Of Self-Efficacy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 1-18, August.
    16. Spencer Henson & Bruce Traill, 2000. "Measuring Perceived Performance of the Food System and Consumer Food‐Related Welfare," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 388-404, September.
    17. Ahuvia, Aaron, 2008. "If money doesn't make us happy, why do we act as if it does?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 491-507, August.
    18. Jiří Čerkasov & Jan Huml & Lucie Vokáčová & Klára Margarisová, 2017. "Consumer's Attitudes to Corporate Social Responsibility and Green Marketing," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 65(6), pages 1865-1872.
    19. Mont, Oksana, 2004. "Institutionalisation of sustainable consumption patterns based on shared use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1-2), pages 135-153, September.
    20. M. Joseph Sirgy & Eda Gurel-Atay & Dave Webb & Muris Cicic & Melika Husic-Mehmedovic & Ahmet Ekici & Andreas Herrmann & Ibrahim Hegazy & Dong-Jin Lee & J. Johar, 2013. "Is Materialism All That Bad? Effects on Satisfaction with Material Life, Life Satisfaction, and Economic Motivation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(1), pages 349-366, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:41:y:2013:i:c:p:184-192. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.