EATING THREE PORTIONS OF FRUIT PER DAY: THE ROLE OF GENDER IN THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR

Guidelines for healthy eating recommend the daily consumption of at least five portions of fruit and vegetables, i.e., three servings of fruit and two of vegetables. Generally, women pay more attention to healthy eating and consume more fruit and vegetables than men. In this chapter, we will describe two studies exploring the gender role within the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) framework. In the TPB, the effect of socio-demographic characteristics, such as gender, on intention and behaviour should be mediated by proximal predictors. Studies on the role of the gender as a further predictor of intention and behaviour and/or moderator of the TPB relationships are few and show inconsistent results. The research aims were: a) to test whether TPB constructs mediated the relationships between gender and intention and between gender and behaviour; b) to analyze whether gender acts as a moderator of the TPB model relationships. Two longitudinal studies were conducted, recruiting two convenience samples of Italian adults, one with no students (Study 1) and one with university students (Study 2). Target behaviour was the consumption of at least three portions of fruit per day in two weeks. At time 1, the questionnaire included measures of intention and its antecedents, according to the TPB. Both the affective and cognitive components of attitude were assessed. At time 2, self-reported consumption behaviour was surveyed. In hierarchical regressions, gender was included as a predictor at the first step; at the second step, the TPB variables were added, and finally, at the last step, the interactions between gender and TPB variables were considered. At the first step, gender had a direct effect on intentions and explained 2% (Study 1) and 4% (Study 2) of intentions variances. Female participants showed more intention to consume three portions of fruit per day. Only in Study 2 did gender predict the eating intention of the students after controlling for TPB antecedents. In both studies, results showed that affective, but not cognitive attitudes towards healthy eating were associated with the intention to eat three portions of fruit per day. TPB constructs and gender explained 65.7% (Study 1) and 62.7% (Study 2) of intention variance. Gender had no direct effects on the eating behaviour. As predicted by the TPB model, intention was the most important predictor of eating behaviour and all variables explained 43.6% (Study 1) and 49% (Study 2) of its variance. In both studies, gender didn’t moderate TPB relationships. Mainly, the results supported the efficacy of the original TPB model in predicting this healthy eating behaviour.