The Effects of Self-Regulatory Training on Dietary Behavior in an Undergraduate Nutrition Class

Abstract

LEARNING OUTCOME: To evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating self-regulatory strategies into a nutrition education curriculum. A challenging task for nutrition educators is to foster dietary behavior change in our students. Studies have shown that knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient condition for dietary change. Researchers have been successful in improving dietary behavior using a mixture of behavioral techniques, however, no attempt has been made to compare individual treatments with one another. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of incorporating two self-regulatory strategies (goal setting and self-monitoring) into a nutrition education class to enhance dietary fiber self-efficacy and foster a positive change in dietary fiber consumption. Students from an introductory nutrition class (N = 113) were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: goal setting (GS), self-monitoring (SM), goal setting + self-monitoring (GS + SM), and no goal setting + no self-monitoring (no GS + no SM). Goal setting had a significant main effect on dietary fiber self-efficacy ( F (1,108) = 4.4, p < 0.05) and on dietary fiber consumption ( F (1,108) = 54.8, p < 0.001). Subjects who set goals scored 15% higher on the dietary fiber self-efficacy scale, and consumed 100% more fiber than subjects who did not set goals. Self-monitoring had no significant main effect on either dietary fiber self-efficacy or dietary fiber consumption. There was no significant interaction between goal setting and self-monitoring. Path analysis revealed that both goal setting (β = 0.18, p < 0.05) and self-monitoring (β = 0.18, p < 0.05) affected dietary fiber consumption through knowledge and dietary fiber self-efficacy. In addition, goal setting had a strong direct effect on post fiber consumption (β = 0.41, p < 0.05). The path analysis also indicated that post knowledge affected fiber consumption only through self-efficacy. This highlights the importance of self-efficacy as a mediator in the relationship between knowledge and behavior change. The findings support the Social Cognitive Theory's model of self-regulation. Self-regulatory training can easily be incorporated into any nutrition education curriculum to enhance dietary behavior change.