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The purpose of this paper is to explore peer influence and the social and symbolic meaning that adolescents (10 to 16 years) attach to snacks; to investigate the relative influence of peer influence compared to personal factors in explaining perceived importance of snack attributes; and to investigate age and gender differences in the peer influence process.

A web‐based survey distributed via e‐mail was combined with follow‐up focus groups including adolescents aged 10 to 16 years in Denmark.

The survey results show that the youngest adolescents and the girls perceived the highest influence from peers, and that peer social influence has more effect on what adolescents perceive as important snack attributes as compared to more personal factors. The focus group results show that adolescents purchase and consume snacks that support their self‐image when socializing with other peers.

Future research should measure other aspects of peer influence and related social aspects regarding consumption settings.

The results in this paper may be useful to marketers developing social marketing campaigns aiming at reducing bullying among adolescents or promoting healthy snacking.

Moreover, the results may help generate societal emphasis on the importance of social and self‐image aspects in consumption settings when it comes to adolescent snacking behaviour, healthy food choices and social development.

The originality lies in the emphasis on social and self‐image aspects.

The rising prevalence of obesity among Indian adolescents has underscored the need to develop effective strategies to reduce this epidemic. The purpose of this paper is to assess the patterns of snacking, meal consumption and fast food consumption among adolescents in private schools in Kolkata, India.

A cross-sectional, paper-based, self-administered dietary and lifestyle survey was completed by 1,026 year-nine students aged 14–16 years. Cross-tabulation analyses were performed to compare the frequencies of various dietary behaviours across gender.

The two most common episodes for snacking among respondents were while watching television (57.9 per cent) and while interacting with peers (54.1 per cent). In contrast, snacking throughout the day (8.7 per cent) and in the middle of the night (7.8 per cent) were minimally practiced by the adolescents. The most regularly consumed meal was lunch (94.6 per cent), whereas the most frequently missed meal was breakfast (14.0 per cent). Fast food was most frequently consumed as snacks (26.8 per cent) but least frequently consumed for lunch (9.2 per cent). Overall, boys exhibited more unhealthy dietary behaviours than girls.

These findings highlight the need to develop nutrition education programmes for nutritionally vulnerable adolescents which communicate the importance of regular meal consumption, reduced intake of fast food and less snacking on energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods.

This is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate patterns of snacking, meal consumption and fast food consumption amongst urban Indian adolescents.

Snacking contributes to one-quarter of children’s total daily energy intake in the USA, with many snack foods being nutrient-poor and energy-dense. Snacking and sugary beverage consumption have been identified as potential contributors to childhood overweight and obesity and may play a particularly important role among children from socioeconomically disadvantaged households that generally display higher rates of obesity. This exploratory study investigated associations between consumption of snack foods, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and overweight and obesity in children from low-income households.

Data from households that participated in a multi-state cost-offset (CO-CSA) community supported agriculture intervention in 2016 and 2017 (n = 305) were analyzed. Fixed effect regression models were used to estimate associations between child monthly consumption of salty snack foods; sweet snack foods and SSBs; and child weight status, accounting for demographic characteristics.

No associations were found between snack or SSB consumption and child overweight. However, household income was significantly, negatively related to all three consumption variables (Salty snacks: ß = −0.09, SE = 0.04, p = 0.02; Sweet snacks: ß= −0.10, SE = 0.04, p = 0.01; SSB: ß= −0.21, SE = 0.05, p = 0.0001). The results suggest that household income may play an important role in children’s snacking and SSB behaviors among more disadvantaged households.

Factors beyond snack food and SSB consumption should be explored to better understand childhood overweight and obesity, and to inform future obesity interventions.

Socioeconomic disparities in childhood obesity are an ongoing policy-relevant issue within the USA and internationally. This study provides new information about child snacking behaviors in a unique, low-income population and contributes to the evidence base regarding the role household context in shaping child consumption behaviors.

The objective of this study is to investigate the role of mothers in administering afternoon snacks to children aged between 6 and 10. Through an exploratory analysis, this study aims at identifying how sociodemographic characteristics of mothers and children and objective and subjective nutritional awareness of the parent influences healthy or unhealthy food choices for the children.

An online survey was submitted to 242 mothers of children attending primary school. Non-parametric correlation using Spearman's coefficient was adopted as an exploratory analysis tool.

The analysis shows that the mothers' level of education and income influence the purchase of snack products. More permissive parents tend to be less well-off, have more than one child and also purchase sweet treats, salty snacks, and sugary drinks more frequently. Furthermore, the results show that parents' perceived subjective awareness is actually lower than their objective awareness, but also that both types of knowledge positively influence the purchase of healthy snacks.

There is extensive research documenting the importance of parents in reducing the risk of obesity; however, their influence on snack intake has not been widely discussed. Furthermore, the association between the occurrence of obesity and parents' behaviour regarding their children's snacking remains unclear. To bridge this gap, this study focuses on a meal which is often linked to poor eating habits: the afternoon snack.

The purpose of this paper is to explore snacking behavior and perspectives on healthy and unhealthy food choices among adolescents in Mainland China.

Four focus-group interviews were conducted. Altogether 24 participants were recruited in Changsha, a second-tier city in China, through a convenience sampling process. They were asked to report their snacking behaviors, identify whether certain snacks are healthy or unhealthy and elaborate on factors affecting food choices.

Snacking was prevalent among the participants. The most frequently consumed snacks included fruit, milk and instant noodles. Participants’ evaluations for the healthiness of foods were based on the actual nutritional values of those foods, the effects on growth and body weight and word-of-mouth. Choice of snack was driven mainly by taste, image, convenience and health consciousness.

The finding was based on a non-probability sample. The paper also did not explore the contexts where snacks were consumed.

Parents can make healthy snacks more accessible at home and at schools. Educators can teach adolescents how to read food labels. Schools can increase the availability of healthy snacks on campus. Social marketers can promote healthy snacks by associating them with fun and high taste.

This is the first paper on snacking behaviors among adolescents conducted in a second-tier city in China using focus-group methodology.

This study investigates a particular food practice which takes place in the playground at school: the afternoon snack. During this special moment, children are free to share and swap their snacks, according to their affinities. The study aims to demonstrate how this food consumption is part of the process of children's socialization.

This paper relies on an ethnographic study of children's behaviour during snack time. Two primary schools representing two different social backgrounds are compared. Pupils are aged from six to ten years. The systematic review of children's snacks during a three-month observation period in each school allowed the author to transform the qualitative observations into quantitative data.

The trading of snacks between children gives rise to entire networks, strategies of exchange and sometimes even snacks theft. The food exchanges act as an indicator of social relationships between the kids. In this regard, snack time teaches us even more about children's behavior and socialization. There are two reasons for that, the first one is that the products consumed are chosen, either by the parents or the children themselves and has nothing to do with the lunch served by the school. The second one is that it is a particularly pleasant moment for them, as it is a time for sweet food shared with their peers.

This is a limited monograph of the snacking behaviour of 20 children with the highest attendance to afterschool study.

The originality of that study is to focus on a space-time and a school food practice that are not often investigated by researchers.

Aims to assess the effectiveness of a child‐to‐child approach to promote healthier snacking in primary school children. A total of 55 schools in North and West Belfast were matched for socio‐economic status (SES). Ten schools were randomly selected and allocated into intervention and control groups. A total of 482 children took part. Older intervention children were given the “snacks facts” programme and became “teachers” in the child‐to‐child intervention. All children had baseline and final assessments made of their dental health knowledge (older children only), snacking knowledge and behaviours using questionnaires and rubbish bags. Older intervention children had greater increases in their mean knowledge scores compared with control children. Older intervention children had greater decreases in mean cariogenic snacking scores compared with control children. Younger children attending higher SES schools had significant decrease in mean cariogenic snacking score compared with children attending lower SES schools. Concludes that the child‐to‐child approach provided an avenue by which children improved their dental health knowledge and modified their snacking habits during break‐time at school.

The study demonstrates the viability of situational segmentation in a market outside the USA. A number of situational segmentation studies in the USA have examined the snacking market. This study examines situational segmentation opportunities in the context of the Japanese snacking market. The study attempts to delineate a situationally‐defined market structure for a broadly defined array of snack products. This is done by characterizing 18 snacks in terms of pertinent situational factors via dummy variable regression analysis; and grouping the snacks in terms of the similarity of their situational characterizations via cluster analysis. The study reveals four multi‐product snack segments, including solitary snacking cluster, socializing ensemble cluster, high gravity socialization cluster, and morning home snack. The results show that situational segmentation is as effective in complementing more traditional segmentation approaches in Japan as it is in the USA.

In this study, a comprehensive theoretical framework was developed to investigate the influence of the determinants of online dried fruit purchase intention in China.

The dried fruit eating experiences of 1,160 participants from China were collected using an online survey.

Significant differences were noted in the sociodemographic distributions among three age-based consumer segments. Furthermore, the cost of the marketing strategy had the strongest effect on online dried fruit purchase intention. Finally, different patterns of online dried fruit purchase intention were observed among the three consumer segments: consumers aged below 24 years regarded dried fruits as a new and healthy snack choice and favoured companies with high-quality communication with consumers; consumers aged 25–29 years viewed dried fruits as a healthy eating habit, reflecting their strong self-control over their lifestyle; and consumers aged over 30 years valued the convenience marketing strategies applied by dried fruit manufacturers.

Overall, the results indicate that dried fruits are considered a niche market of snacks that provides added value for core products in the Chinese e-commerce (EC) market; therefore, developing cost-effective strategies to raise consumer awareness of dried fruits is crucial. Furthermore, marketing strategies should target different consumer segments.

The purpose of this paper is to construct and describe a snack service model for a comprehensive school.

Empirical data were collected from the school officials and the pupils by using a focus group method in two comprehensive schools. Moreover, the food service managers of Espoo and Vantaa cities' catering services were theme interviewed. Consequently, a description of the snack service models was conducted and a snack service model for a comprehensive school was constructed.

A constructed model for serving snacks consists of eight elements: snack products; service process; customers; pricing; procurement of snacks; nutrition recommendations; in‐house control and interest groups.

The constructed snack service model can be utilized as a standard model when serving snacks in a comprehensive school.

The constructed model may act as a reference model for the school catering organisations and the school officials when decisions related to snacks serving are made.