Spatial, temporal, and health associations of eating alone: A cross-cultural analysis of young adults in urban Australia and Japan
| Autor: | Melissa K. Melby, Wakako Takeda |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Cross-Cultural Comparison Male 0301 basic medicine medicine.medical_specialty Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander Urban Population media_common.quotation_subject Health Behavior Context (language use) Developmental psychology Pleasure Eating Young Adult 03 medical and health sciences Sex Factors 0302 clinical medicine Asian People Japan medicine Humans Cross-cultural 030212 general & internal medicine Young adult Social Behavior Set (psychology) Association (psychology) General Psychology media_common Principal Component Analysis 030109 nutrition & dietetics Nutrition and Dietetics Public health digestive oral and skin physiology Australia Feeding Behavior Cross-cultural studies Diet Socioeconomic Factors Fast Foods Female Psychology |
| Zdroj: | Appetite. 118:149-160 |
| ISSN: | 0195-6663 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.appet.2017.08.013 |
| Popis: | Eating alone is driven by social and cultural factors, not solely by individual preferences. In academic research, eating alone is often simply treated as an alternative to social, commensal eating, and little is known about the practice of eating alone itself. This study employs a cross-cultural analysis to explore social and cultural associations of eating alone. The analysis is based on 1) cultural domain data, derived from principal component analysis of freelist responses, a set of words or phrases related to the topic of eating alone; and 2) in-depth interviews with 72 young adults aged 20-40 in urban Australia and Japan. Many Australian and Japanese young adult participants associated eating alone with both pleasure and stress of being isolated from others. However, the comparison of principal components between Australian and Japanese groups and gender subgroups showed cross-cultural variations and complexity in the context of eating alone including: locations and timings of eating alone, and associations with healthy/unhealthy eating. Analyses of interviews are included to deepen understandings of cultural domains. These key associations are influenced by a range of social and cultural environments such as fast food cultures, work and life environments, and the scope of public health nutrition programs. The association between eating alone and healthy eating among young adults indicates that individualistic understandings of food intake in current public health nutrition programs are more favorable to eating alone and foster a gap between ideas of healthy eating and commensal eating as a cultural ideal. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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