Abstract
Adolescent obesity and poor diet quality are increasingly prevalent and could be mitigated with attainment of food literacy. However, as these programs for adolescents are lacking, the purpose of this project was to develop a food literacy curriculum for high school-aged adolescents. The curriculum was designed in accordance with food literacy attributes and components utilizing Backward Design, Social Cognitive Theory, and Constructivism. After expert committee review, pilot testing was completed in two low-income communities by a trained facilitator and observer. Detailed observations were collected during pilot testing to assess achievement of learning objectives. Modifications were made to lesson procedures as required. The resulting curriculum, Teens CAN: Comprehensive Food Literacy in Cooking, Agriculture, and Nutrition, contains 12 modules of experiential lessons and application activities within three topics. Agriculture lessons concentrate on the food supply chain and food environments; nutrition lessons include food groups while focusing on nutrients of concern for underconsumption; and cooking lessons include food safety, budgeting, and preparation. Teens CAN provides a comprehensive and necessary approach to advancing food literacy in adolescents. Future directions include assessing dietary implications after participating in Teens CAN lessons and employment of an innovative two-tiered cross-age teaching model.
Highlights
Obesity is a multifactorial disease that is challenging to treat, requiring several considerations and components encouraging behavioral modifications [1]
Teens CAN was developed to align with the components [18] and attributes [19] of food literacy in an effort to be as comprehensive as possible (Table 1)
While improvements in dietary outcomes have been observed in adolescent interventions aimed at improving attributes of food literacy [17], long-term implications for diet quality and obesity prevalence are lacking [21]
Summary
Obesity is a multifactorial disease that is challenging to treat, requiring several considerations and components encouraging behavioral modifications [1]. In 2016, 1 in 5 adolescents were classified as obese, with prevalence of obesity highest in Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black adolescents with 25.9% and 25%, respectively [8,9] These values were above the 20.6% average for adolescents aged 12–19 years and higher than that of non-Hispanic White youth within the same age group [9]. Youth who reduce incidence of obesity mitigate the associated increased risk of adulthood chronic disease, instead exhibiting comparable risk to that of youth who were never obese [4,5]. This supports an urgent need to educate adolescents as they transition to experiencing more autonomy in food choices and other lifestyle behaviors that arise with emerging adulthood [10]
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