IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i9p1605-d229118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socio-Economic Factors, the Food Environment and Lunchtime Food Purchasing by Young People at Secondary School

Author

Listed:
  • Wendy Wills

    (Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC), University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9AB, UK)

  • Giada Danesi

    (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lausanne, UNIL-Mouline, Bâtiment Géopolis, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland)

  • Ariadne Beatrice Kapetanaki

    (Department of Marketing and Enterprise, Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9AB, UK)

  • Laura Hamilton

    (Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, 27–28 Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AA, UK)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to report on the lunchtime food purchasing practices of secondary school students and some of the factors related to this purchasing, including the influence of socio-economic status (SES) and the food environment within and around schools. A mixed-methods study incorporating an online purchasing recall questionnaire and multiple qualitative methods was undertaken at seven UK secondary schools. The analysis shows that SES was intricately woven with lunchtime food practices. Three-quarters of participants regularly purchased food outside of school; those at low SES schools were more likely to report regularly leaving school to buy food. Young people’s perception of food sold in schools in areas of low SES was often negative and they left school to find “better” food and value for money. Taste, ingredients and advertisements were factors that mattered to young people at schools with low or mixed SES; health as a driver was only mentioned by pupils at a high SES school. For public health initiatives to be effective, it is critical to consider food purchasing practices as complex socio-economically driven phenomena and this study offers important insights along with suggestions for designing interventions that consider SES. Availability of food outlets may be less important than meeting young people’s desires for tasty food and positive relationships with peers, caterers and retailers, all shaped by SES. Innovative ways to engage young people, taking account of SES, are required.

Suggested Citation

  • Wendy Wills & Giada Danesi & Ariadne Beatrice Kapetanaki & Laura Hamilton, 2019. "Socio-Economic Factors, the Food Environment and Lunchtime Food Purchasing by Young People at Secondary School," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-13, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1605-:d:229118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1605/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1605/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Backett-Milburn, Kathryn C. & Wills, Wendy J. & Gregory, Susan & Lawton, Julia, 2006. "Making sense of eating, weight and risk in the early teenage years: Views and concerns of parents in poorer socio-economic circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 624-635, August.
    2. Swoboda, Bernhard & Berg, Bettina & Schramm-Klein, Hanna & Foscht, Thomas, 2013. "The importance of retail brand equity and store accessibility for store loyalty in local competition," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 251-262.
    3. Fielding-Singh, Priya, 2019. "You're worth what you eat: Adolescent beliefs about healthy eating, morality and socioeconomic status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 41-48.
    4. Kubik, M.Y. & Lytle, L.A. & Hannan, P.J. & Perry, C.L. & Story, M., 2003. "The Association of the School Food Environment with Dietary Behaviors of Young Adolescents," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(7), pages 1168-1173.
    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. Jennifer Hanson & Janelle Elmore & Marianne Swaney-Stueve, 2020. "Food Trying and Liking Related to Grade Level and Meal Participation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-11, August.

    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. Ariun Ishdorj & Mary Kay Crepinsek & Helen H. Jensen, 2013. "Children's Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables: Do School Environment and Policies Affect Choices at School and Away from School?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 341-359.
    2. Deda Ogum-Alangea & Richmond N O Aryeetey & Heewon L Gray & Amos K Laar & Richard M K Adanu, 2020. "Basic school pupils’ food purchases during mid-morning break in urban Ghanaian schools," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-13, September.
    3. Ching-Jung Yu & Jung-Chieh Du & Hsien-Chih Chiou & Chun-Cheng Feng & Ming-Yi Chung & Winnie Yang & Ying-Sheue Chen & Ling-Chu Chien & Betau Hwang & Mei-Lien Chen, 2016. "Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Is Adversely Associated with Childhood Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Choi, Seul Ki & Frongillo, Edward A. & Blake, Christine E. & Thrasher, James F., 2019. "Why are restricted food items still sold after the implementation of the school store policy? the case of South Korea," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 161-169.
    5. Shyh-Ming Huang & Shyh-Rong Fang & Shih-Chieh Fang & Chao-Chin Huang, 2016. "The influences of brand benefits on brand loyalty: Intermediate mechanisms," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 41(1), pages 141-160, February.
    6. Seong Ho Lee, 2021. "Effects of Retailers’ Corporate Social Responsibility on Retailer Equity and Consumer Usage Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-9, March.
    7. Rudkowski, Janice, 2024. "Measuring employee-consumer integrated retailer brand equity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Collange, Véronique, 2015. "Consumer reaction to service rebranding," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 178-186.
    9. Kapinos, Kandice A. & Yakusheva, Olga & Eisenberg, Daniel, 2014. "Obesogenic environmental influences on young adults: Evidence from college dormitory assignments," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 98-109.
    10. Sun, Xiaochi & Foscht, Thomas & Eisingerich, Andreas B., 2021. "Does educating customers create positive word of mouth?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Kim, Jeeyeon & Choi, Jeonghye & Chang, Sue Ryung & Trivedi, Minakshi, 2024. "The impact of offline store presence on digital sales: The moderating role of product functionality," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Fielding-Singh, Priya & Wang, Jennifer, 2017. "Table talk: How mothers and adolescents across socioeconomic status discuss food," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 49-57.
    13. Nina Van der Vliet & Brigit Staatsen & Hanneke Kruize & George Morris & Caroline Costongs & Ruth Bell & Sibila Marques & Timothy Taylor & Sonia Quiroga & Pablo Martinez Juarez & Vojtech Máca & Milan Š, 2018. "The INHERIT Model: A Tool to Jointly Improve Health, Environmental Sustainability and Health Equity through Behavior and Lifestyle Change," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-21, July.
    14. Swoboda, Bernhard & Weindel, Julia & Hälsig, Frank, 2016. "Predictors and effects of retail brand equity – A cross-sectoral analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 265-276.
    15. Catalina Londoño-Cañola & Gemma Serral & Julia Díez & Alba Martínez-García & Manuel Franco & Lucía Artazcoz & Carlos Ariza, 2022. "Retail Food Environment around Schools in Barcelona by Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status: Implications for Local Food Policy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Rybaczewska Maria & Chesire Betty Jebet & Sparks Leigh, 2020. "YouTube Vloggers as Brand Influencers on Consumer Purchase Behaviour," Journal of Intercultural Management, Sciendo, vol. 12(3), pages 117-140, September.
    17. Michelle M. Vine & Julianne Vermeer & Leonardo Romano & Daniel W. Harrington & Alexandra E. Butler & Karen A. Patte & Katelyn M. Godin & Scott T. Leatherdale, 2021. "Secondary School Nutrition Policy Compliance in Ontario and Alberta, Canada: A Follow-Up Study Examining Vending Machine Data from the COMPASS Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-12, April.
    18. Santana, Paula & Santos, Rita & Nogueira, Helena, 2009. "The link between local environment and obesity: A multilevel analysis in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 601-609, February.
    19. Murray, John & Elms, Jonathan & Teller, Christoph, 2017. "Examining the role of store design on consumers’ cross-sectional perceptions of retail brand loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 147-156.
    20. Luana Romão Nogueira & Mariane De Mello Fontanelli & Breno Souza de Aguiar & Marcelo Antunes Failla & Alex Antonio Florindo & Ligia Vizeu Barrozo & Moisés Goldbaum & Chester Luiz Galvão Cesar & Maria , 2018. "Access to Street Markets and Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables by Adolescents Living in São Paulo, Brazil," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-12, March.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1605-:d:229118. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.