Content area
Abstract
Introduction: Recent studies have illuminated changes related to dietary quality and eating behaviors that U.S. university students experienced during global coronavirus lockdowns. Limited qualitative research has been published on this topic. This study aimed to describe eating- and drinking-related behavior changes reported by U.S. undergraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic using the theoretical framework of Eating Competence (EC).
Methods: This was a secondary analysis of data collected from an online survey administered from October through December 2020 to undergraduate students. The original survey consisted of previously validated and/or published instruments, including the Satter Eating Competence Inventory (ecSI 2.0™). Using a direct content analysis approach, this study coded respondents’ answers to two open-ended questions regarding eating and drinking habits. Codes were written and classified deductively under the four domains of Eating Competence: Eating Attitudes, Food Acceptance, Internal Regulation, and Contextual Skills. Other codes were developed inductively to represent responses that did not fit within these domains. Respondents were categorized as EC or not EC based on their ecSI 2.0™ scores.
Results: 1,529 responses were analyzed. The eating context changed for many respondents, who widely reported eating and being at home more often during the pandemic, regardless of EC status. Many EC respondents discussed leaning into the changes in context and structure by trying more foods, cooking more often, and listening to their body’s hunger cues. Non-EC respondents frequently discussed how changes in their routine and lack of structure had resulted in a struggle to eat regularly, expressed concerns with weight, and were intentionally restricting their intake.
Conclusion: Changes related to the eating context and contextual skills, as well as underlying stress, were primary drivers of the changes in eating habits that respondents experienced during the pandemic. This study highlights the benefit of qualitative analysis for expanding our understanding of theoretical frameworks like Eating Competence.
Supplementary Files: 1) Code book, which includes the parent and sub-codes, a description of when the codes were applied, and examples of code applications. 2) Code tree, which visually represents some of the relationships between codes.
