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Instruments for analysing the influence of advertising on children's food choices

International Journal of Obesity volume 35, pages S137–S143 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

The aim of this report was to present methodological aspects of assessing the effects of advertising on children's food choices and preferences.

Methods:

Two instruments have been used: first, a choice experiment on children's food knowledge and preferences, and second, a questionnaire on children's knowledge about and attitudes towards advertising. The choice experiment employed 10 matched pairs of food items, each represented in two magazines, one that tested knowledge and the other food preferences. The children's questionnaire contained four dimensions that tested children's credibility and suspiciousness of, as well as entertainment by, advertising. Although based on already developed tools, both instruments were modified to suit the young target group and ensure cross-cultural comparability. The questionnaire was validated via Cronbach's alpha and factor analysis.

Subjects:

A total of 393 children aged 5–11 years from seven European countries participated in the study.

Results:

Both instruments proved to be valid and reliable to analyse the food knowledge and preferences of children, as well as knowledge about and attitudes towards advertising. While 92.2% of the children predominantly recognised the healthier food, only 33.2% also preferred the healthier food. The Cronbach's alpha values for the dimensions were 0.470 for credibility, 0.409 for suspiciousness and 0.295 for entertainment factor. The gathered data revealed that children are rather critical and suspicious of advertising and only moderately entertained.

Conclusion:

Both instruments are applicable for the 5- to 11-year-old age group in different European countries. Descriptive results indicate additional insights into the effects of advertising on children's food knowledge, preferences and food choice.

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Acknowledgements

This work was done as part of the IDEFICS study (http://www.idefics.eu). We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Community within the Sixth RTD Framework Programme Contract No. 016181 (FOOD) and the funding from EU DG Research for the IDEFICS study. We gratefully acknowledge the development of the parent–child instrument by Jessica Dreas from the Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine (BIPS), Germany, in collaboration with Eva Ossiansson and Barbro Johansson from the Gothenburg Research Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The ethnographic studies have been developed by Eva Ossiansson and Barbro Johansson from the Gothenburg Research Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. We are particularly thankful for the feedback received from the field teams in the participating IDEFICS countries, which helped us to develop and improve the instruments. We also thank the German AID Infodienst for permission to use their food cards. Finally, we thank the children, parents and staff of the co-operating school in Denmark (St Petri Dansk-Tysk Skole in Copenhagen) and all children and parents participating in the IDEFICS study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intercultural Communication and Management,

    W Gwozdz & L A Reisch

  2. Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    W Gwozdz & L A Reisch

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  1. W Gwozdz
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Correspondence to W Gwozdz.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Statement of ethics

We certify that all applicable institutional and governmental regulations regarding the ethical use of human volunteers were followed during this research. Approval by the appropriate ethical committees was obtained by each of the eight centres engaged in the fieldwork. Participants were not subjected to any study procedure before both the children and their parents gave their consent for examinations, collection of samples, subsequent analysis and storage of personal data and collected samples. The participating children and their parents could consent to single components of the study while refraining from others.

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Gwozdz, W., Reisch, L. & on behalf of the IDEFICS Consortium. Instruments for analysing the influence of advertising on children's food choices. Int J Obes 35 (Suppl 1), S137–S143 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2011.46

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