Abstract
Both mothers’ and best friends’ food intake are associated with adolescents’ food intake, but they are rarely investigated simultaneously. In this study, we tested the associations of mothers’ and best friends’ food intake with adolescents’ intake of unhealthy and healthy food, obtained from home and from outside the home, and the moderating role of adolescents’ exposure to their food intake. Participants included 667 adolescents (53% female, Mage = 12.9) and 396 of their mothers. Within this adolescent sample, 378 best friend dyads were identified. All participants completed food frequency questionnaires. Mothers separately reported on their food intake in the presence and absence of their child, and adolescents indicated how often they ate and drank together with their best friend during school breaks. Mothers’, but not best friends’, food intake was positively related to adolescents’ intake of unhealthy and healthy food obtained from home and healthy food obtained from outside the home. Exposure to mothers’ healthy food intake magnified mother-child similarities in healthy food intake. Exposure to best friends’ intake of unhealthy food moderated adolescent-friend similarities in unhealthy food intake. Future work should assess the mechanisms that underlie these similarities, and should investigate these associations over time and in later developmental periods.
Highlights
Healthy eating during adolescence is critical to foster healthy physical and emotional growth, and to forestall the development of health-comprising conditions, such as obesity [1]
As a wealth of research has shown that the social environment shapes adolescents’ unhealthy and healthy food intake [7,8] and that consumption patterns established in adolescence tend to continue into adulthood [9,10], it is critical for prevention efforts to understand which social factors determine food intake during adolescence
Pearson’s correlation coefficients between adolescents’, mothers’, and best friends’ food intake and the covariates are presented in Supplementary Table S1, along with descriptive statistics (M (SD)
Summary
Healthy eating during adolescence is critical to foster healthy physical and emotional growth, and to forestall the development of health-comprising conditions, such as obesity [1]. Nowadays, many adolescents consume too much unhealthy food and too little healthy food. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and sweet and savory snacks are found to contribute substantially to adolescents’ total caloric intake [2,3,4]. It has been reported that most adolescents fail to meet the recommended intake of fruit and vegetables [5,6]. As a wealth of research has shown that the social environment shapes adolescents’ unhealthy and healthy food intake [7,8] and that consumption patterns established in adolescence tend to continue into adulthood [9,10], it is critical for prevention efforts to understand which social factors determine food intake during adolescence.
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