Food, Cooking and Youth: A survey of New Zealand adolescent cooking abilities and behaviours - associations with well-being, resilience and family connectedness

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is a critical stage in life when young people obtain the necessary skills and practice positive behaviours that will ensure a lifetime of good health and well-being. Evidence suggests that involvement in food preparation and the development of cooking as a skill may provide adolescents with opportunities to build these positive behaviours. However, it seems that many New Zealand adolescents are not regularly involved in cooking, with roughly 15-22% reporting that they have not been involved in cooking within the last year. The decline in the amount of nutrition and cooking offered in the education system reduces the opportunities adolescents have to develop these core life skills. Understanding the direct role meal preparation and confidence to cook has on adolescent well-being, resilience, family connectedness and dietary intake are essential to ensure as a nation we are educating our youth in the right areas.

Aim: To survey New Zealand adolescents’ involvement in meal preparation and confidence to cook in order to identify the role these behaviours have on adolescent well-being, resilience, family connectedness and dietary intake.

Design: This thesis reports on the interim analysis of the Food, Cooking and You Survey, an observational cross-sectional study using an online platform designed to gather baseline data, of New Zealand adolescents (aged 15 to 17 years old). Participants (n=407) were recruited via paid Facebook advertising and directed to the survey hosted on REDCap online software. The 118-item questionnaire assessed areas including demographics, anthropometry, dietary quality, confidence in food preparation, cooking skills, well-being, family connectedness and resilience, with questions obtained from previously validated questionnaires.

Results: Cronbach’s alpha for cooking confidence measures was high (0.82) indicating good internal reliability. Of the survey respondents, 91% reported that they could cook a meal from basic ingredients either fairly easily or very easily (n=312/343). Of the 91% that could cook, 86% reported cooking at least once per week. Cooking ability was positively correlated with increased fruit and vegetable intake, and greater resilience (p<0.05). Adolescents with the highest confidence to cook were more likely to have higher fruit and vegetable intakes, reduced takeaway intake, and increased well-being, resilience and family connectedness (p<0.05) compared to those with less confidence.

Conclusion: Adolescents who have the ability to cook and who possess the greatest confidence to cook have significant dietary, behavioural and mental-health based benefits over those who are less confident and/or have no cooking ability. Adolescents should be encouraged by their families and taught within schools the necessary skills to cook to develop healthy behaviours that will track into later life. Further research into the links between cooking and adolescent health would build upon the findings of this study.