Comparing the utility of the theory of planned behavior between boys and girls for predicting snack food consumption: Implications for practice

The purpose of this study was to use the theory of planned behavior to explain two types of snack food consumption among boys and girls (girls n=98; boys n=69), which may have implications for future theory-based health promotion interventions. Between genders, there was a significant difference for calorie dense/nutrient poor snacks (p = .002), but no difference for fruit and vegetable snacks. Using step-wise multiple regression, attitudes, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms accounted for a large amount of the variance of intentions (girls=43.3%; boys=55.9%), however for girls, subjective norms accounted for the most variance, while for boys, attitudes accounted for the most variance. Calories from calorically dense/nutrient poor snacks and fruit and vegetable snacks were also predicted by intentions. For boys, intentions predicted 6.4% of the variance for fruit and vegetable snacks (p = .03), but was not significant for calorically dense/nutrient poor snacks, while for girls, intentions predicted 6.0% of the variance for fruit and vegetable snacks (p = .007), and 7.2% of the variance for calorically dense/nutrient poor snacks (p = .004). Results suggest that the theory of planned behavior is a useful framework for predicting snack foods among children, however there are important differences among boys and girls which should be considered in future health promotion interventions.