title: Hungry for an intervention? Adolescents' ratings of acceptability of eating-related intervention strategies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Effective interventions promoting healthier eating behavior among adolescents are urgently needed. One factor that has been shown to impact effectiveness is whether the target population accepts the intervention. While previous research has assessed adults' acceptance of eating-related interventions, research on the opinion of adolescents is lacking. The current study addressed this gap in the literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two thousand seven hundred sixty four adolescents (aged 10-17 years) from four European countries answered questions about individual characteristics (socio-demographics, anthropometrics, and average daily intake of healthy and unhealthy foods) and the acceptability of ten eating-related intervention strategies. These strategies varied in type (either promoting healthy eating or discouraging unhealthy eating), level of intrusiveness, setting (home, school, broader out-of-home environment), and change agent (parents, teacher, policy makers).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on adolescents' acceptability ratings, strategies could be clustered into two categories, those promoting healthy eating and those discouraging unhealthy eating, with acceptability rated significantly higher for the former. Acceptability of intervention strategies was rated moderate on average, but higher among girls, younger, overweight and immigrant adolescents, and those reporting healthier eating. Polish and Portuguese adolescents were overall more accepting of strategies than UK and Dutch adolescents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adolescents preferred intervention strategies that promote healthy eating over strategies that discourage unhealthy eating. Level of intrusiveness affected acceptability ratings for the latter type of strategies only. Various individual and behavioral characteristics were associated with acceptability. These findings provide practical guidance for the selection of acceptable intervention strategies to improve adolescents' eating behavior.
authors.affiliation: Psychological Assessment and Health Psychology, University of Konstanz, PO Box 47, 78457, Konstanz, Germany. marijn.stok@uni-konstanz.de.|Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. marijn.stok@uni-konstanz.de.
authors.forename: F Marijn
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Stok
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. d.t.d.deridder@uu.nl.
authors.forename: Denise T D
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: de Ridder
authors.affiliation: Wageningen University and Research Centre, Communication, Philosophy and Technology, Centre for Integrative Development, Wageningen, The Netherlands. emely.devet@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Emely
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Vet
authors.affiliation: Department of Business Administration, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark. liliyan@asb.dk.
authors.forename: Liliya
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nureeva
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department in Wroclaw, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland. aluszczy@uccs.edu.|Trauma, Health, & Hazards Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA. aluszczy@uccs.edu.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luszczynska
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, Health Behaviour Research Centre, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wardle
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Human Kinetics, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. tania.gaspar.barra@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gaspar
authors.affiliation: National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. j.dewit@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: John B F
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: de Wit
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000367:Age Factors; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004032:Diet; D004435:Eating; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005060:Europe; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control; D050177:Overweight; D018907:Privacy; D012737:Sex Factors