Abstract
To evaluate the relationship between fruits and vegetables (F&V) availability at home and young people's F&V consumption behaviour, and how the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) constructs could potentially mediate the relationship. Cross-sectional face-to-face survey questionnaire to assess the TPB constructs and home food availability assessed using open inventories method. F&V availability was categorised into low and high levels based on median split. Singapore. Two hundred and ten households (each consisting one parent-child pair) recruited via stratified cluster sampling with child participants ranging from 9 to 16 years of age. Mediation analyses were conducted using structural equation modelling. The relationship between home F&V availability and F&V consumption behaviour did not have a significant direct association, but there were significant indirect effects through the routes of perceived behavioural control (PBC) and intention as well as attitude and intention. Specifically, higher level of F&V availability at home was related to more positive PBC and attitude towards F&V, and subsequently greater intention to consume F&V and higher consumption of F&V. Parents should make F&V more readily available at home as increased exposure to F&V could be related to enhanced liking, sense of control and intention to consume F&V and facilitate children's healthy diet.
Highlights
The directions from the independent variable to the mediators and to the dependent variable are consistent in that greater home F&V inventory (HFI) led to more positive attitude towards fruits and vegetables (F&V), subjective norm and perceived behavioural control (PBC), which in turn were linked to greater intention to consume F&V and greater F&V consumption behaviour
The findings revealed that home F&V availability and F&V consumption behaviour did not show a significant direct association but demonstrated significant indirect links through the routes of PBC and intention as well as via attitude and intention
Our study found that the relationship of home F&V availability with F&V behaviour was mediated by PBC and intention, but PBC alone did not significantly mediate this relationship
Summary
Participants A total of 210 households consisting of young people (the child participant; n 210) with their parents (the parent participant; n 210) were recruited using stratified cluster sampling in Singapore. As HFI was measured based on the ‘best fit’ size of standardised zip-lock bags, which was an ordinal scale, we divided the composite HFI measure into two groups based on median split following the method used in prior nutrition studies[68,76,77] and to allow for parsimony in the analysis, that is, low HFI (M = 3933·2 ml, SD = 2898, 4 ml, min = 0 ml, max = 8130 ml) and high HFI (M = 14 977·4 ml, SD = 3878, 7 ml, min = 9600 ml, max = 19 200 ml). Statistical significance for all analyses was defined at P < 0·05
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