Environmental Influences on Dietary Choices of African American School Age Youth

Background: Childhood obesity has grown to be a major chronic health disorder in the United States, and in particularly African American school age children. One way researchers have addressed the increasing rates of childhood obesity is to focus on nutrition, particularly dietary behaviors and choices of school age children. Many school based obesity prevention interventions have been evaluated in the last decade; however, the success of the interventions have been minimal. Methodology: Photo-elicitation will be used to carry out this intervention. Critical social theory will be the premise of photo-elicitation that will be utilized to examine perceptions of food choice and dietary behaviors in school age children. Results: At the completion of this study, the results that will be presented are the outcomes from a photo-elicitation session with African American students and their perceptions and influences on dietary habits via the lens of their environment. Discussion: This research project expects to build understanding as to how African American school age children perceive their food choices. Furthermore, this study will examine how dietary behavior in the participants' current environment can provide enriching information about how culturally and environmentally relevant strategies can be used to provide outcomes that would expand the selection of food choices, the decision making of healthier foods and building a reciprocal link between food and environment. In addition, this research project will begin to build the foundation for future cultural based nutrition interventions for African American school age children.