Madeleine Nowak

Beliefs Behaviours and Concerns of Adolescents About Food and Weight: a Study of High School Students in Northern Australia Madeleine Nowak

This work examines the food, nutrition, weight and shape related beliefs, behaviours and concerns of adolescents living in north Queensland, Australia and determines how they vary across school years. It examines their sources of information about these issues, and their exercise levels and how these vary with school year. It also identifies predictors of weight loss behaviour and explores how students who try to lose weight differ from those who do not in relation to body image, food intake, knowledge about food, and sources of information about food, nutrition and weight loss. The work also examines the relationships between knowledge, beliefs and behaviours in relation to food, nutrition, weight and body image, and seeks to determine the relative importance to adolescents of 10 different aspects of health and well-being and to establish how important these students perceived the food they eat to be for these issues. The book concludes by proposing a model to explain food and weight related behaviour in various cultures.