Integrating phenomenological research with middle school food policy interventions

As school districts develop and implement required local school wellness policies, it will be important to taking into account the influence of neighborhood food and social factors when evaluating the effectiveness of enacted polices at promoting healthful eating patterns among middle school students. Thus far, the relationships between implemented school food policies, neighborhood environments, and social influences have not been adequately studied. This presentation explains the benefits of using a phenomenological research approach to examine these relationships. Phenomenological inquiry involves using in-depth qualitative methods to describe and interpret the meaning of the lived experiences of research participants. Participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and document reviews were conducted with middle school students in an ethnically diverse urban school with implemented school food policies in order to understand how the interaction between the school and neighborhood food environments and social factors influence middle school students' routine eating patterns. Middle school students' decision regarding whether or not to eat the school-provided hot lunch entrée was influenced by the unappealing nature of the school lunch; having regular access to unhealthful neighborhood; and peer and family pressure. This study extends our current evidence base by examining how not eating the school lunch relates with factors in students' social and neighborhood food environments; developing methodologies to illuminate the specific relationships between implemented school wellness policies and obesogenic behaviors; and demonstrating how phenomenological data collection strategies can complement on-going obesity prevention interventions. These findings can inform strategies to integrate research with school-based adolescent obesity prevention efforts.