Question 1 - John
In what ways do you feel that peers influence our decisions related to food preference and beverage choices during adolescence? How can we as future dietitians best bring about change in the adolescent perception of healthy beverage choices?
posted by Unknown @ 3:11 PM
24 comments
24 Comments:
Adolescence is a strange time of trying to figure yourself out and at the same time seeking acceptance. I think the degree of influence of peers depends on if an adolescent is more of a leader or a follower. Some individuals are more susceptible to the influence of others. The drive for acceptance is what often fuels that influence. Bottom line, most kids want to be “cool,” and whoever’s opinion (theirs, their parents’, other role models’, or their friends’) is most important to the adolescent will dominate in regard to shaping the adolescent’s intentions. Being different in an uncool way can be socially devastating to someone who is very concerned with what others think. Unfamiliar is often equated with uncool.
As future RDs, we need to ride the present wave of health coming in vogue. We need to make the healthy choices just as familiar as the widely advertised SSBs. Healthy food and drink choices needs to be convenient and exciting. Community outreach and using media influence to get the right information out there, in a non-offensive way seems like a good general approach. There are a lot of misperceptions and misinformation of what healthy is. Adolescents are still developing the ability to critically evaluate credibility. A well-positioned campaign designed not to bash SSBs, but to shift the attention to healthier choices could be helpful, especially to avoid the disinhibition issue. Next year’s NNM theme could be to focus on smart beverage choices?? We are the nutrition experts after all.
Peers begin to influence our food and beverage choices even before adolescence. I currently work at preschool and if one kid at the table complains about the broccoli they all complain about the broccoli, but if one doesn’t, they eat it. Growing up, especially in adolescent years, many are concerned with fitting in. Part of that mindset also plays a role in our food and beverage choices. A number of studies have been done proving that modeling plays a role in our food choices. Therefore, simply being with friends and peers around meal times and seeing what they are eating can influence adolescents choices. Comments peers make can also influence choices. If an adolescent is trying to fit in and a peer makes a negative comment about a food that they are eating or were going to eat that person could be less likely to eat that food again, especially in front of their peers.
As future dietitians we can help influence the choices offered in a school cafeterias that adolescents have to choose from. We can help make the choices exciting for adolescents to try. We also can educate adolescents on healthier beverage and food choices. I like how Gina mentioned that we don’t have to bash SSB, instead find different choices that are exciting and promote them. Adolescents and almost every other age don’t want to be told what to stay away from and what not to have they want to be told what to have and why!
Personally, I feel that peers, during the age of adolescence, have a huge influence on food preference and beverage choices. Gina put it well when she said that the drive for acceptance is often what fuels adolescents’ choices. When I think back to when I was in grade school, I can remember being at sleepovers and drinking soda and junk food because that is what my friends were doing. I remember that one friend in particular always had Mountain Dew stocked in their fridge. Even though my parents didn’t purchase sugary soda for me to drink at that age, I still always drank it around this particular friend because that is what she did. Now that I think about it, my food choices today are still influenced by my peers. For example, sometimes Abby and I will be sitting around our apartment and think of a craving we both have. We are either good at talking each other out of eating the food or we poorly influence each other’s choices. I think peer and social influence is something that will always be present, but is especially prevalent in adolescence.
As a future dietitian, I would say that bringing about awareness to the adolescent population is important. Making a point to reach out to kids at school or afterschool programs is key. Telling them that sugar is bad for their health is not going to get through to them. You need startling visual and things that kids can relate to. I also would say that showing advertisements where athletes or their favorite celebrities promote water and milk would also be influential. I also liked Moriah’s idea about making healthier choices available more frequently and limiting unhealthy choices in schools to begin with. If we begin changing a person’s environment, the temptations won’t be there.
I agree with what others have said so far about the strength of peer influence in adolescent years. Peer acceptance and fitting in is of critical importance during those years especially, giving peers a great power over each other's food choices. Adolescence is also the age where people get further introduced to beverages and foods outside of the home and when it becomes more appropriate for kids to drink something other than water, juice, and milk. Consuming SSBs is almost a coming of age opportunity that can be greatly enhanced by peer influence.
As RDs I think we have a great opportunity to educate adolescents on SSBs and what healthy beverage choices look like. I think that Gina makes a great point in saying that it's not as effective to demonize SSBs as it could be to increase positive attention towards healthy drinks like water. Having celebrity endorsement to make healthy choices look "cool" as they did in the Got Milk? campaign seems like it would be effective in creating positive attitudes towards healthier drink choices, though I know it did not work so as well as hoped.
With the changes that have occurred with updates to the National School Lunch Program, I think adolescents now have much better choices surrounding them at school. The bigger issue to tackle might be the choices kids make in their free time. Health education regarding the nutrient content of SSBs versus other drinks and the health implications related to the various nutrition content in beverages would be a good place to start. Talking to kids to make them understand the value of health and what healthy means both short and long-term may also be effective. We know that education alone is not successful in promoting behavior change, but it seems like a good place to start.
There have been some excellent discussion points made so far!
Gina, you brought up an excellent point about shifting the attention to healthy beverage choices rather than simply discrediting SSBs altogether. We can therefore use our understanding of peer influence to help create positive changes. Building off of that, Amanda and Justine brought up a good point as well tying into Gina's; if we were able to bring together celebrities or professional athletes to deliver a campaign on healthy beverages we would definitely be off to a great start!
Based on my current job working in a junior high cafeteria, I see the influence peers have on each other in regards to food choices daily. Whether it is a group of girls that stick together and therefore all get salads or healthy options, or other students who go through the line together but decide not to get the vegetable because their friend next to them didn't get it. On the other hand, I see one student ask for two servings of vegetables, every single day, without a care if the other kids see him ask for double the vegetables. Although I don't think negative peer influence can be omitted, I think it can be decreased based on how adolescents are raised and what the norm is in the household. Blame doesn't need to fall on the parents for children not liking healthy options, but teaching kids at a young age what should be the norm can help with positive choices and possibly reduce the urge for adolescents to consume certain junk food or SSBs because their peers do.
As future dietitians, educating young parents about the health risks for consuming large amounts of SSBs is crucial. This can possibly motivate them to keep those beverages out of the house, along with teaching their children at a young age about what should normally be consumed. They may build habits as they are growing into adolescence, and therefore not be as susceptible to negative peer influence.
I really appreciate what Moriah said about the healthy options offered in school lunches, and how we can make them more appealing to adolescents. Instead of just marketing an item as a healthy option, focus on appealing to the students based on the flavor of the product. Introducing new products can also urge adolescents to choose healthier options based on curiosity to try the product and possibly enjoy it.
For adolescents, I feel that food/beverage choices are largely influenced by media and what is "trendy" at the time. Currently healthy eating and drinks such as salads and carrying around water bottles is quite trendy, so it catches on to more people. Adolescents, like many adults as well, like to jump on that band wagon of trends.
As future dietitians what we can do is to educate parents about starting their children young when making healthy food/beverage choices, which will likely play a large role in the adolescent's life. On a larger scale, celebrities and role models promoting healthy eating may be a great way to reach adolescents as well. Additionally, it can be helpful for dietitians to make visits to high schools such as on career day or at fairs.
Another big factor is convenience. Adolescents are involved in school, clubs, sports, making friends, etc. so it's important that healthy food/beverage is also convenient for them like how soda or hamburgers and fries are.
I feel that peers ultimately do have a major influence on the food and beverage choices in adolescents. Due to various media outlets, nutrition misinformation often circulates, which leads to skewed perceptions of certain food products. For example, adolescents may be more unwilling to eat starches/carbohydrate due to the current fad gluten-free diets or "wheat bellies." As this misinformation spreads, adolescents may be more inclined to believe this information if that models their peers' beliefs. While adolescence is a period of emerging autonomy, individuals at this stage are still influenced by how they were raised and the modeled behaviors/perceptions of parents.
As RDs, it will be our mission to ultimately relay the correct information regarding food and beverage choices. It has been mentioned often that we should focus on foods and beverages that individuals can have, rather than those that are "off-limits." Also, proactive education would be the best solution to the misconception of SSBs. It would be ideal, as Nikki has already stated, to introduce nutrition information to parents when their children are young in order to promote healthier drink options.
I agree with what Gina mentioned about not bashing SSBs. I feel that this idea correlates well with the idea of focusing on the "good," rather than bringing a negative lens to foods or beverages. Vivian also made a great point regarding dietitians and school visits. I volunteered briefly with the St. Louis Dairy Council over the summer, and the RDs with the council make frequent visits to elementary schools and after-school programs to promote the benefits of drinking more milk. I feel that the council's initiative is a great start to focusing on the healthier drink options (such as milk) instead of lecturing students on the negative health outcomes of pop or other SSBs.
Peers are highly influential as to our food and beverage choices in adolescence as well as throughout an individual’s life. Primarily this is due to the peers influence on the environment and time and revenue spent in any extracurricular activities. If it is the commonality of your peer group to study at Taco Bell for chemistry, you are found at Taco Bell at least once a week. When placed in such an environment the opportunity to make healthy choices decreases due to availability and ease of acquisition. However, if the peer group’s commonality is to refill their reusable water bottles on the way to meeting for the intramural softball team, the environment is conducive to healthier food and beverage choices. Secondly, peers have a high influence as nutrition information sources. In the age of adolescence, key factors of individual knowledge and peer pressure strength may determine food and beverage selection. A lack of knowledge of healthy food and beverage choices strengthens peer pressure influence upon choices due a default reliance on another’s judgement. A general lack of knowledge contributes to misinformation in this age group, following of unsupported media food trends, and empowered by peer pressure group mentality. The influence of peers on adolescent food and beverage selection is that of a trusted source or advisor, whether this is a reasonable expectation or not.
The position of an RD is to disperse correct standards and information of healthy food and beverage choices to this population. The greatest opportunity to accomplish this lies in person to person contact, or presentation in school environments at an ideal age of 6-8th grade in order to provide base standards for food selection by which media food trends may be compared and evaluated, and decreasing the reliance of individual adolescents on secondary nutrition information sources such as peer groups.
During adolescence, it is important to note that kids are more often surrounded by their peers than there family members. With attending school for 1-2 meals a day, peers greatly impact consumption. Peers could have both a positive and negative influence on the eating habits of adolescence; however, I infer the influence is primarily negative. If your friends all decide to skip lunch for the day, you are likely to skip lunch. If your friends decide to go through the drive-thru after a long day at school, you would be more likely to indulge as well. As an RD, we can attempt to bring about change by reducing the consumption of SSB's by creating promotions that advertise water or non-sweetened beverages in the same ways as large corporations advertise soda and energy drinks. Additionally, giving adolescence easy beverage substitutions such as flavored water, or flavored tonic water that are still naturally sweet in flavor, but with out all the added sugar.
It is clear that peer influence is a large part of adolescence across many behaviors, including nutritional choices. There are a few different ways to view adolescent peer influence and that is by assessing the influence of the larger peer group (such as the entire freshman class at a high school) or by focusing on the impacts within smaller friend groups. Thinking back to my adolescence, I remember being somewhat influenced by the food/drink choices of my few good friends, but much less so by other peers that I did not consider my friends, even if they were “cool.” It seems like the influence within small, intimate peer groups is the most significant due to the number of hours spent together in and out of school. As mentioned by some others, items consumed outside of school with peers may be highly influenced by peers. For example, when going to a friend’s house after school to hang out, an individual’s food choices are likely going to be formed based on what snacks are offered by the friend or their parents. Within this context, an individual then needs to make food choices based on what is offered and what their friends are eating. If only unhealthy choices are offered, it is unlikely that an individual would make a specific request for a healthier item that was not offered. Additionally, consuming junk food after school or on weekends with friends can be framed as a reward, a treat, or as a normal behavior with few negative implications.
As RDs, a mix of parental education and adolescent-focused education are needed. Targeting parents is important because they are the ones paying for their adolescents’ foods. However, with the increased time spent with friends and away from family, adolescents also need to be educated on the consequences of their food choices. When targeting adolescents, it is important to focus on what is important to them. Adolescents do not care about their risk for obesity, heart disease, and diabetes and are likely uninterested in MyPlate. Healthy choices could be better framed in the context of benefits for athletic performance, hair/skin/nail health and appearance, and mental abilities. The information needs to be presented in a way that is relevant for the age group. In relation to beverages, the benefits of water for the areas I listed could be useful. Further focus on making water the beverage of choice among adolescence could include making reusuable water bottles trendy. With the immense variety in reusable water bottles, this could easily become an increasing trend among adolescence and promote water consumption over SSBs.
Peers play a significant role in the decisions adolescents make concerning food and beverage choices. During these years many adolescents are trying to balance independence and social acceptance. For many this mean following the patterns and norms of those around them including fashion, music, physical activity, and food. If your peers and friends only eat or drink certain foods then, you will be more inclined to make those same choices.
The adolescent years (10-19) span a section of our lifetime that sees a tremendous amount of change and growth physically and mentally. In the younger adolescent years, parents provide the greatest influence towards their children’s decisions. Therefore, as a future RD I need to target parents about healthy beverage choices they should provide for their children. Along with providing parents the tools they need to help influence the healthy growth and development of their children. During the middle adolescent years, as an RD I should transition into “marketing” healthy beverage choices to adolescents directly (classroom education) or by utilizing existing campaigns to make “healthy” cool and hip; for example the Got Milk? campaign where everyone from celebrities on down were on the milk band wagon. To bring about healthy beverage choices to older adolescents (graduating for high school and transitioning into the workplace or college), I should instill in them self-empowerment, so they know they have the knowledge and skills to make healthier food and beverage choices.
Adolescents are constantly impacted by peer influence whether they are in their school cafeteria or eating meals at their own kitchen table. Peers do tempt others to make certain food decisions since this population is vulnerable and want to be deemed “cool” or “popular”, therefore choices will be altered according to those who are thought to be cool and popular. In order to strengthen the adolescents’ ability to make decisions for themselves, and to make healthy food decisions, I feel that education is necessary. Proper education in schools and at home should be encouraged and implemented. Healthy options should be available for the adolescent to choose from and healthy decisions should be reinforced or praised. At this age, kids want to be able to have independence to choose for themselves so by educating on what should be chosen is ideal. As for SSB, limit the amount of SSB to chose from and inform the adolescent of the benefits of other beverages, such as milk and water. Also, advertisements with celebrities or famous athletes can be a great tool to influence the child. Another tip would be the staff at school and guardians at home to lead by example. - Kelly Berg
Viv! I love the idea about a dietitian being a part of a career day or similar event. I also like Kirsten's point about bringing in parent education as well. I've always felt like unhealthy eating habits were part of a cycle. The parent has their eating habits which they develop during life. Then they pass them on (intentionally or not) to their kids by what they purchase. The kids' habits develop based on what is available. A child who wants to eat healthier might not have the option, resulting in default development of eating patterns similar to their parents. They, then, may carry these habits on to their own children. The difficult question is where to enter that cycle to be effective. We know habits are developed early on, but it doesn't matter how well a second grader understands they need their fruits and veggies if they are never available at home. Establishing solid health promoting eating patterns early on, with a dually targeted intervention, could certainly combat negative peer pressure and create the opportunity for positive peer pressure to eat healthy items.
When I think back to my own experience as an adolescent, I remember being much more focused on and worried about how others perceived me and what people observed about me. With that in mind, I can easily understand the influence that peers place on one another during adolescence – not only in food choices, but additionally related to dietary behaviors and food environments. This could relate to having certain snacks and beverages in the home for when friends come over or selections purchased and brought to school. We ALL lived this and I am sure we can relate!
This is a period when independence is starting to expand both in responsibility and in making own decisions. Thus, I think RDs and healthy food/beverage choices can/should be promoted over popular social media outlets that a majority of this age group uses. We are commonly focused on television, but I think that ads on popular video streaming sites or on gaming apps would be large-scale mediums to target this age group. Think of how often adolescents are exposed to ads/commercials on their devices – this seems like an effective method to spread information and promote healthy choices.
I really like how Nikki introduced the importance of parents in this age group. Although independence is expanding during adolescence, parents still play a large role in food/beverages available in the home. They also are models of behavior that their children are likely to mimic. I certainly agree that a holistic approach to this issue relating to ALL age groups would be the greatest key to success.
Peers have a large influence on food and beverage preferences during adolescence. This influence is created by the need to fit in with a specific peer group. Due to adolescents desire to relate with others their age, I believe just the decision their peers make alone influences adolescents to make the same decisions. Some adolescents also place a lot of pressure on their friends to act a certain way.
I think as RD’s we can combat this pressure/desire by educating and making eating healthy the “cool” thing. That might mean doing outreach activities in middle schools and high schools to reach larger groups. While educating one person might make an impact reaching the population (for example in a school) might be more effective.
I feel that peers have a large impact on our decisions related to food preference and beverage choices during the ages of adolescence. As a child, I remember asking my parents for something I had seen a friend of mine have in their lunch box. I also remember asking my parents not to pack me certain things because it wasn’t “cool”. Additionally, I had the option to buy things from the lunch line. When I think back to the foods and beverages I requested, they were often trendy items advertised on television that every kid wanted to have. My choices were based off of what was popular, with little thought on what was healthy. As dietitians, I think we need to change the discussion. We need to make healthy “cool”. Ultimately, more dietitians need to work with large food companies to create campaigns for healthy items that would seem trendy and appeal to all children. It could be as simple as packaging. An example would be Gogurts. As I kid I hated yogurt, but when Gogurt came out in an awesome squeezable package that all my friends had, I suddenly loved yogurt. I believe starting in schools would be a good starting place to do this. Providing samples tied with nutrition education can teach children to make healthier choices. As dietitians, we need to critically think about all aspects. Sure, we can give free samples out at lunch of a trendy healthy beverage at school, but will their parents buy it for their children at home? The downfall with trendy foods is that they’re often pricier. Promoting trendy foods that children find appealing is a starting place, but eventually I would love to see us move past that. It’s not an easy task to change an individual’s perception of food, but getting into schools with healthy trendy items to spark a child’s interest is a place to start, and can get the conversation going.
Jenn, I like how you pointed out that the use of social media outlets for promotion of healthy food and beverage choices. When we were children, we were not exposed to social media advertisements as much as today's children are. I think that using social media as a way to promote healthy choices is a great way to reach children quickly and effectively.
Kandice I love how you brought up the Got Milk? campaign. I think that is a great example of making a healthy food "cool." Kids see the commercials of celebrities endorsing Pepsi, Coke, McDonalds, Doritos, ect. and think that those are the cool foods to eat/drink. Especially when you are in elementary and middle school your peer's opinions have a heavy impact on your decisions. Just like Sophie mentioned, peer influence is huge and they can feel pressure to act a certain way or make certain choices. I know when I was a lunch lady I saw peer influence first hand. If someone thought the refried beans were gross then their next five friends also thought the beans were gross. I remember doing the same thing when I was in grade school and not always choosing the foods I wanted because I was worried that I would get made fun of for eating certain foods. I think RDs can make an impact by being present and educating the students about healthy beverages. Somehow healthy foods and beverages need to be made "cool", and like others mentioned, influences at home can also make a huge impact.
Like many others have mentioned, for many, adolescence is a time of simple trying to fit in with the crowd and making decisions related to food and beverage consumption is just as relevant as what to wear, what sports team to join, what music to listen to and so on. Especially since at this age, peers eat together in the cafeteria every day at school, what other peers are choosing to eat or drink would play a major role in others' food and drink decisions. I agree with Kandice and Abby about relating the Got Milk? campaign to this topic. Having kids being exposed to a more positive message when it comes to healthy foods and drinks is so important from day one!
I am currently writing my research proposal on the negative image that fruits and vegetables have acquired, specifically in the school lunch cafeterias. My study is looking at if the lunchroom workers were to change the way they talk about fruits and vegetables if kids would change the way they view them as well. For example, saying "don't forget your yummy carrots because they help your eyes stay healthy" rather than "you have to take carrots because its the rule." The same goes for this topic. By giving healthy foods and beverages a more positive image, kids will become more likely to pick the better choice!
I agree with Sophie and Carly in that peers have a large influence on food choices in many ways, such going to a friend's house to discover new foods or simply by establishing the food "norms" of a given social group. I think this food influence that occurs among teens and adolescents continues throughout life. Thinking back to high school in general I can remember "lunchtime" being the ultimate social time. Much of our peer relationships were built around one particular meal period. I think that in and of itself says a lot about how food choices will be influenced.
As RDs I think one thing we can do to promote healthy food and beverage choices to this particular age group is to stay current with what is "cool" with the youngsters and make healthful food choices trendy. One example of this is the FNV instagram account. If you haven't seen it definitely check it out. They post a ton of funny pop-culturally relevant posts about fruits and vegetables. A great way to keep their insta followers thinking about F&Vs.
Relating to Nikki's comment and the current status of the NSLP, I believe that school cafeterias can be a place for positive peer influence over food choices. Much of the food offered in lunchrooms now is much healthier than it used to be, even though a significant amount of it is highly processed. The beverages served in schools now must have lower than a specified amount of added sugar, meaning that soda and similar beverages are not sold during school. Some of the beverages now offered in place of SSBs contain various types of sweeteners. This leads me to wonder if these lower sugar alternatively sweetened drinks are truly better for the kids or not. I do not believe there is currently adequate evidence indicating the health benefits/harms of non-nutritive sweeteners for developing youth. This will be an interesting implication of reducing the amount of SSB in offered in schools.
Kandice provided a valuable example of how health professionals may create effective campaigns to alter adolescent food choices in a social setting, Got Milk? . Even as the current health promotion trend shifts from recommending milk with every school meal to recommending a choice of milk or plain water, this campaign has had a powerful effect for decades. A partnership of health dieticians with food producers and relevant role models could tackle many food choice issues. "On the Verge" with vegetables, utilizing athletes and icons may prove to have a similar effect in encouraging specific vegetable consumption. These types of campaigns success with these populations may be in the simple and direct truth of their messages, as adolescents are bombarded with high volumes of information.
Peers highly influence adolescent’s food choices. Often times, 1-2 meals per day are eaten at school and they are surrounded by friends during these meals. I remember being in middle school and being the only person at my lunch table that ate the school lunch. All of the other kid’s parents packed their lunches and they were always filled with relatively healthy foods. It was easy for me to become self-conscious about my food choices because the kids I sat with would always say how “grossed out” they were by the school lunch. In this situation, I was both negatively influenced and positively influenced by my peers when it came to my food preferences. On one hand, I always saw my peers eating fresh fruits and vegetables that their parents backed, so I would fill my tray with similar items offered by school lunch as an attempt to fit in. On the other hand, I would feel very self-conscious about what foods I chose in the lunch line because I didn’t want to get a negative reaction from my peers. This is just one example of peer influence on food choices and preferences during adolescents. Looking at this phenomenon from a school district employed dietitian, one idea to fix the negative stereotype around school lunches would be to highlight a “food of the day” that is healthy and/or unique. It could be recognized on the school lunch menu and also have a special description by it in the lunch line. Adolescents might be less inclined to look negatively at school lunches if they become interested and excited about the special food of the day.
In terms of changing adolescent’s perception about healthy beverage choices, there are a couple of things I have in mind that would accomplish this goal. One would be to use marketing strategies that would promote healthy beverage choices such as water and non-sweetened beverages. Placing signs up in the lunch room about the importance of choosing healthy beverages may do the trick. If the school has a TV monitor in the lunch room (my middle school does now), nutrition topics such as why one should choose to consume healthy foods and beverages could be cycled through on a PowerPoint or changed daily. Adolescents is a time when kids are developing into their own person and are easily influenced by peers including classmates, parents, teachers, school administration, and so on. Even though it could seem like the students wouldn’t be interested in reading this information, just having that resource there are putting those healthy messages out would likely positively influence more students than you’d think.
Gina said, “There are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation of what healthy is”. I definitely agree with Gina. Going back to my middle school experience explained above, there were many times when my friends would make comments about how the fruit that school lunch serves is from a can. They would say that it was gross, slimy, and not good for you. Credible information presented to students about what the term “healthy” means along with examples (such as the differences between canned and fresh fruits and veggies) would be extremely beneficial.
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