A qualitative inquiry of food insecurity in Belize.

OBJECTIVE: To explore and provide contextual meaning around issues surrounding food insecurity, namely factors influencing food access, as one domain of food security. DESIGN: A community-based, qualitative inquiry using semi-structured face-to-face interviews was conducted as part of a larger sequential mixed-methods study. SETTING: Cayo District, Belize, May 2019-August 2019. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty English-speaking individuals (eight males, twenty-two females) between the ages of 18-70, with varying family composition residing within the Cayo District. RESULTS: Participants describe a complex interconnectedness between family- and individual-level barriers to food access. Specifically, family composition, income, education and employment influence individuals' ability to afford and access food for themselves or their families. Participants also cite challenges with transportation and distance to food sources and educational opportunities as barriers to accessing food. CONCLUSION: These findings provide insight around food security and food access barriers in a middle-income country and provide avenues for further study and potential interventions. Increased and sustained investment in primary and secondary education, including programmes to support enrollment, should be a priority to decreasing food insecurity. Attention to building public infrastructure may also ease burdens around accessing foods.

Determinants of middle-school students asking parents for fruits and vegetables: a theory-based salient belief elicitation.

OBJECTIVE: Despite the benefits of fruit and vegetable intake, many young Americans do not consume them at adequate levels. The present study sought to determine the beliefs that children have about asking their parents to have fruits and vegetables available at home in order to better understand the role children may play in influencing their own fruit and vegetable consumption. DESIGN: An instrument utilizing the Reasoned Action Approach, with closed-ended questions on demographic and behavioural variables and open-ended questions eliciting the belief structure underlying asking parents to make fruits and vegetables available, was distributed. Thematic and frequency analyses were performed for open-ended questions. Statistical analyses were conducted to assess differences between children who had v. had not asked for fruits and vegetables. SETTING: Three middle schools in rural Indiana, U.S.A. SUBJECTS: A sub-sample of sixty students aged 12­15 years from a larger study of 344 students. RESULTS: Qualitative analysis identified benefits (i.e., make me healthier; make parents happy), disadvantages (i.e., will upset my parents) and strategies (i.e., asking when you are at the store) that could be used to improve fruit and vegetable intake. Findings also revealed that students who asked their parents for fruits and vegetables were significantly more likely to perform several healthy eating and physical activity behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Data suggest that young people's view of parental reactions is critical. While additional research is necessary, the findings support a role for children in shaping their own environment and suggest multilevel interventions that simultaneously address parents and children.

Incorporating emotions specific to the sexual response into theories of emotion using the Indiana Sexual and Affective Word Set.

The sexual response includes an emotional component, but it is not clear whether this component is specific to sex and whether it is best explained by dimensional or discrete emotion theories. To determine whether the emotional component of the sexual response is distinct from other emotions, participants (n = 1099) rated 1450 sexual and non-sexual words according to dimensional theories of emotion (using scales of valence, arousal, and dominance) and according to theories of basic emotion (using scales of happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust). In addition, ratings were provided for newly developed scales of sexual valence, arousal, and energy. A factor analysis produced four factors, together accounting for 91.5% of the variance in participant ratings. Using logistic regression analysis, we found that one word category or factor, labeled "sexual," was predicted only by the new sexual arousal and energy scales. The remaining three factors, labeled "disgusting," "happy," and "basic aversive" were best predicted by basic (or discrete) emotion ratings. Dimensional ratings of valence, sexual valence, and arousal were not predictive of any of the four categories. These results suggest that the addition of sexually specific emotions to basic emotion theories is justified and needed to account fully for emotional responses to sexual stimuli. In addition, the findings provide initial validation for the Indiana Sexual and Affective Words Set (ISAWS), supporting its use in future studies.

Beliefs Underlying the Decision to Eat Breakfast: The Role of Theory-based Behavioral Analysis in the Development of Policy, Communication and Educational Interventions for Healthy Eating.

Policy, communication, and education efforts to influence any social or health outcome are more effective if based on an understanding of the underlying behaviors and their determinants. This conceptual paper outlines how behavioral theory can help design interventions for one healthy eating behavior, eating breakfast. More specifically, the paper illustrates how a prominent health behavior theory, the Reasoned Action Approach, can be used to guide formative research to identify factors underlying people's decisions. Select findings are presented from three studies of beliefs underlying eating breakfast: online surveys with 1185 undergraduates from a large university in Indiana; in-depth interviews with 61 adults from four Indiana worksites; and 63 in-depth interviews with students from three middle schools in rural Indiana. Analyses of data from the undergraduates demonstrated the role of self-efficacy. Analyses of data from the working adults revealed the importance of normative beliefs about what employers believed. Analyses comparing consequences perceived by adults with those perceived by middle school students found that both groups believed that eating breakfast would provide energy but only middle school students believed that eating breakfast would improve alertness. For each finding, the theory is presented, the finding is described, implications for interventions are suggested, and the need for additional research is outlined. In sum, theory-based behavioral research can help develop interventions at intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental levels that are warranted to encourage healthy eating.