FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Food and Eating Habits of College Students Natalie Butler California State University, Chico

FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS Abstract Purpose: It is a common stereotype that college students only consume quick and easy food, which is believed to result in a unhealthy diet. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify if students do in fact eat unhealthy diets and what perceived barriers they may have to consume healthy diets. Methods: This project investigated the food and eating habits of four college students. These students were selected from California State University, Chico and interviewed at various locations near the campus. They were all given the same interview questions, which were then analyzed later with a the development of a code-matrix. Results:

The results of this study provided that there are many perceived barriers when it comes to eating healthy for college students. The most important barriers identified were that of cost, schedules, transportation, peer pressure, and ability to cook. Other findings were that most students believed they ate healthy on a regular basis, while only eating fast food sometimes. As well as, when and where individuals eat is important when it comes to eating healthy as a college students. Conclusions: This study found that most participants do not typically eat at home, eat at the same times, do find their diet to be healthy, and most do not eat out at fast food restaurants regularly. Introduction The objective of this research study is to investigate the food and eating habits of college students. It is known that eating habit's of college students vary when compared to the eating habits of other population groups. College students are thought to have unhealthy diets resulting from the consumption of unhealthy, fast, and easy food. However, provided with adequate research on the topic, it could be shown that these individuals really do not have as bad of diets as once perceived. Other objectives of this study are to investigate any underlying factors

FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS which may influence college student's eating habits as well as recognize any eating patterns that may emerge between different students. The food and eating habits of college students differ from other population groups in a variety of ways. College student's lives can get so complicated and busy that many of these individuals may not have adequate time in order to eat healthy foods. Researchers at the University of Western Ontario in Canada found in a study on the perceived facilitators and barriers of healthful eating in university students that when it comes to eating healthy foods students may find there are numerous barriers in achieving this goal. The barriers identified by this study were cost of food, time, knowledge, and the lack of transportation in order to get healthy foods (Garcia et al. 2010). The use of this study helped the current research question by helping to identify different barriers that students perceive to limit their consumption of healthy foods. Due to the barriers students face, they find themselves on campus eating meals or even eating at fast food restaurants close to campus. Another study on the relationship between lifestyle and campus eating behaviors in university students claims that the increased consumption of easy fast food in college populations contributes to a unhealthy diet (Jackson et al. 2009). The findings of this study showed that many lifestyle factors influenced eating choices, such as walking to campus, living at home and physical activity. However, these findings were not important to the current study at hand about student eating habits. Although, this study did find that when students do not bring food to school they are more likely to eat on campus or fast food, which could be important to the findings of our study. The eating habits of college students is an area of interest to many current college students and university professionals. It is important to research because students do have

FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS different ideas of eating healthy, and it may be interesting to learn exactly what barriers college students believe they face when eating healthy. The research of perceived barriers is important

as it could help to promote healthy eating and the reduction of such barriers within future college populations. Methods This study investigated the eating habits of four different college students. The college students all currently attended California State University, Chico. They were chosen based upon their knowledge or lack of knowledge in the area of healthy eating. The objective was to find one student who had heightened knowledge of eating healthy, one student who lived on campus, and two students who may or may not have had a good understanding of eating healthy. They also were chosen based upon where they lived compared to campus. One participant was a student living off campus who was majoring in Nutrition, and therefore had a heightened knowledge in the area of eating healthy. Another participant was a student who currently lived on campus and therefore was somewhat limited to the foods they consumed. Whereas the other two participants were individuals who lived off campus, and did not have any known prior knowledge of eating healthy. The participants were interviewed in person and asked the same six questions, which also included different probe questions to further understand their point of view (Table 1). The first interview of participant A took place at a coffee shop near CSU, Chico, the participant was a 23 year old female, nutrition major. The second interview of participant B took place in the Merriam Library at CSU, Chico, and the participant was a female 20 year old junior criminal

FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS Interview Questions (Table 1) 1. What times do you typically eat every day? Do these times vary every day or are they always the same? 2. Where do you typically eat your meals? Are there any other places that you eat frequently? 3. During the week do you tend to eat your meals on campus? If so, how often? Where? 4. What would you say college students barriers are when it comes to eating regular healthy meals? How do you think you could overcome these barriers? 5. Would you consider your diet to be healthy or unhealthy? Why? Could it improve? Would you like it to improve? How would you improve it? 6. How often would you say you eat at fast food restaurants? What kind of fast food do you usually eat? Would you say this is a part of your typical diet? justice major, who lives off campus. As for participant C, she was a 21 year old accounting

major, who lives off campus and the interview took place at a caf which was close to the Chico State campus. The fourth interview took place on campus and the participant was an 18 year old male communications major who resides on campus.

During each interview detailed notes of what each individual said were taken. After each interview any other information that was recalled was written onto the notes that were taken during the interview. After all notes were taken and recalled, detailed field notes were the interviews were prepared, these notes included date, time, observations, and characteristics of the participants. These notes were all typed into a word document for each of the different interviews, allowing for all the information of each interview to be recorded. After the interviews were conducted and notes were taken a code matrix was to be established. The notes were taken and any information that was consistent through the different research interviews was highlighted as a way of coding different ideas that were represented in all interviews. After the highlighting was done, themes submerged from the interviews and was turned into a code-matrix. Following the identification of the themes other subthemes were also taken from the coding and put into the code-matrix.

FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Participant A (Age 23) Eats at same time During week During Weekend Location Campus Friends/Other Home Out Barriers Cost Schedules Transportation Peer Pressure Able to cook Factors of healthy choices Believed healthful eating Eat fast food Eating on campus sometimes/always Results

Participant B (Age 20)

Participant C (Age 21) x

Participant D (Age 18) x

x x x x x x

x x

x x x

x x x x x

x x x

x x x

x x x x

From the interviews conducted there were many different findings. Of the participants, half of them believed that they eat at the same times during the week, whereas the other two only eat on a schedule during the weekend. Participant D said that he usually has a schedule for meals because of the limited times at the dining hall, "It is a priority to make sure you get your meals in for the day because of the hours that the dining hall provides." Whereas participant A said that her meal times always vary depending on her work schedule and classes during the week. However, she did say that she is likely to eat more scheduled meals on the weekends, "I usually will eat at the same times on both days of the weekends, it is just easier." There were four

FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS places that were common of students to eat these being, campus, friends/other individuals houses, home and out. Three of the participants reported that they typically eat their meals at

home, but can be found eating at other locations too. For instance, participant B said she usually eats at home but will sometimes eat on campus, "I usually eat at home, but occasionally I will take my meal to school, I will never buy food from school though." These findings are interesting because it is thought that students typically eat most of their meals on campus. Other research has found that it is more likely for students who eat breakfast on campus to buy other meals on campus too (Jackson et al. 2009). However, it seems that with this group of individuals, buying food and eating on campus doesn't happen as much as we believed. Other findings included the perceived barriers when it comes to eating healthy. The

Percieved Barriers

barriers identified by this sample of college students

Cost Schedule Transportation Peer Pressure Ability to Cook

showed that the most important ones were the cost of food, schedules, transportation, peer

pressure, and the ability to cook. Participant C said that her main barrier was that of cost, "It is super expensive to buy produce because you are constantly having to go to the store and buy more, maybe once or twice a week and even whole grains are expensive, which all may stop students from eating as healthy as they could." Other research suggests the same thing, saying that the poor eating behaviors of college students is caused by the price of these foods and the

FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS easy access to fast food (Jackson et al. 2009). During this study it was also found that 75% of the students believe that they have healthy eating habits and think that their habits could be

improved upon. This study also found that of the four participants, two eat fast food sometimes, whereas the other two either do not eat fast food at all or all the time. There were many limitations to this study. One limitation represented was that of the small population size. It would be more beneficial to research if there was more than four participants. Also all of the individuals were of about the same age, this was a limitation because some college students are much older and therefore it did not adequately represent this population. Another limitation to this study was that of the interviewing process. This process could have been better had the individuals been recorded to acquire more in-depth quotes and fully record everything that they had to say. A different limitation to the study was that of the participants, other than the nutrition major, it was not known if the other participants had prior healthful eating knowledge, which could have affected the answers that they provided. It would have also been ideal if the participants all did not attend the same university. A better representation of college students would have been from other Universities across a larger area, such as all of California, not just Chico. An additional limitation was that of the participants gender, of the four participants only one was a male and three were females. To be a better representation of the population it would be beneficial to have the same amount of male participants as female participants. Conclusion Ultimately it looks as if students' diets are not exactly what we had thought prior. From this study is showed that these college students do not fit into the stereotypical college student in terms of eating habits. Most of these individuals believed they have a healthy diet, which is not

FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS in line with what most believe. Also, many students eat at home, which is different when comparing to what society believes of college students. However, there are many barriers that limit students eating healthy which should be looked at in a study with more individuals. If the study were to be repeated it would be interesting to use a larger population to see what types of themes and subthemes were to emerge at a larger scale. It would also be beneficial to ask more

in-depth questions of the participants to have a better understanding of what effects their choices and food habits and to allow for even more defined themes to arise.

FOOD AND EATING HABITS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS References Jackson, RA. Berry TR, Kennedy MD. (2009). The relationship between lifestyle and campus eating behaviors in male and female university students. College Student Journal. 43:3. 860-871 Garcia, A., Sykes, L., Matthews, J., Martin N., Leipert, B. (2010). Perceived facilitators of and barriers to healthful eating among university students. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research. 71:2. e28-e33.

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