Japanese high school students' television viewing and fast food consumption

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between daily television (TV) viewing duration and weekly fast food consumption of Japanese high school students.

Design/methodology/approach

The total of 325 Japanese high school students from Miyazaki, Japan (148 female and 176 male students and one student with no gender identification) answered the survey in order to assess their daily TV viewing duration and weekly fast food consumption.

Findings

The results indicated that low TV viewers spent significantly less money on weekly fast food consumption than either moderate or high TV viewers; and male students spent significantly more money on weekly fast food consumption than female students.

Research limitations/implications

Owing to the limited sample size, the results of this study might lack generalizability. Further research on this issue should be conducted in the future.

Practical implications

Similar to studies conducted in different countries, the results of the present study provided evidence to suggest that cumulative exposure to TV was linked to the increase of fast food consumption in Japanese high school students.

Originality/value

There were few studies that investigated the media effects on fast food consumption of Japanese high school students. This study might be the first one.

Citation

Kobayashi, F. (2011), "Japanese high school students' television viewing and fast food consumption", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 242-248. https://doi.org/10.1108/00346651111151375