Abstract
Objective: This study examines how affective associations and cognitive beliefs are related to diet and physical activity in adolescents. Design, Setting and Participants: A convenience sample of approximately 1500 students in 9th-12th grades attending Detroit Public Schools completed a questionnaire during February 2015. The instrument was 18 closed-ended questions to measure feelings and beliefs about food, National YouthRiskBehavior Survey(YRBS)questions regarding diet and physical activity, and demographic information. Outcome Measures and Analysis: Questions measuring beliefs, positive feelings and negative feelings regarding four domain activities (eating fruits, eating vegetables, drinking soda pop, being physically active) and cognitive questions are predictor variables. YRBS questions assessing behavior related to the four domains are criterion variables. Descriptive statistics report frequencies, means and standard deviations. Chi-square tests assess relationships in the categorical independent variables. Results: Preliminary results show that approximately 65% of students are not consuming enough fruits and vegetables. Results showed that as student’s negative feeling about vegetables (e.g. disgust and sadness) increased, student self-report of eating vegetables decreases (p<0.05). Also, as positive feelings towards pop soda (e.g. joy and delight)increased, reported pop consumption also increases (p<.01). Conclusions and Implications: The results can improve understanding of how feelings and cognitive beliefs are related to diet and activity behaviors in high school students. This research, in a racially and ethnically diverse population of inner city adolescents, provides the opportunity to study individuals not often included in health behavior studies. The findings can be used to develop more comprehensive and effective interventions to change behaviors associated with chronic disease. Funding: None.
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