Psychosocial factors associated with young elementary school children's intentions to consume legumes: a test of the theory of reasoned action.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to test the utility of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) in explaining young elementary school children's intention to consume legumes.


METHODS
A survey was conducted with children in an urban, multicultural community in Massachusetts. A total of 336 children participated. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the strength of the relationship between attitude and subjective norm and intention.


RESULTS
Although attitude was significantly associated with intention, the pseudo-R2 for the regression model that included only the TRA constructs was extremely low (.01). Adding demographic factors and preference improved the model's predictive ability, but attitude was no longer significant.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study do not provide support for the predictive utility of the TRA with young elementary school children for this behavior, when demographic factors are accounted for. Hedonic factors, rather than reasoned judgments, may help drive children's intentions.
Folta
Sara C
SC
Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, 150 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111, USA. sara.folta@tufts.edu
Bell
Rick
R
Economos
Christina
C
Landers
Stewart
S
Goldberg
Jeanne P
JP
D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003710:Demography; D007887:Fabaceae; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male