Motivations for meal and snack times: Three approaches reveal similar constructs

Uyen T.X. Phan, Edgar Chambers IV

Index: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2018.03.018

Full Text: HTML

Abstract

Meals and snacks are conceptualized differently. Meals are structured while snacking often is not. Food choices for meals, thus, are expectedly different from food choices for snacks. By using three approaches incorporating two psychological perspectives, top-down and bottom-up, this research project investigated motivations influencing foods and beverage choices for different eating occasions at various times of the day. The first approach used a modified online Eating Motivation Survey (TEMS) to examine motivations for individual food items within specific contexts of eating. The second approach employed the Food Choice Map technique to explore motivations for individual food choices for all eating within a typical week. The last approach again used a modified TEMS to investigate choices for eating occasions, without examining what foods were eaten specifically. Findings from all three approaches supported that food patterns for meal were different from those for snacks. Choosing foods and beverages for meals were the result of the interplay of more motivation factors than for snacks. Food decision was significantly influenced by the time of the day at which the eating occurred. Although liking was most important for all eating occasions, day-time eating was driven more by function-oriented factors and night-time eating was more because of psychological or emotion-oriented needs. Findings from this project advance and reinforce knowledge in the food choice domain and show that investigating food choice from different perspectives can provide similar information.