“Where” and “What” Do Adolescent Athletes Learn When It Comes to Food Literacy Compared With Adolescents that Do Not Play Sports? A Gender-Based Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Background

Food literacy skills (e.g., nutrition knowledge, social, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of food) play a role in high school (13–18 y) athletes’ health and performance. Literature suggests that adolescents are rarely taught concepts beyond nutrition knowledge, and experiences differ with gender or sports involvement. To improve all adolescents’ food literacy, we aimed to clarify differences in athletes’ and nonathletes’ food literacy to inform food literacy program design.

Objectives

The objective of this study was to contrast athletes’ and nonathletes’ food literacy using a gender lens.

Methods

We conducted 33 semistructured interviews with adolescents from a high school. Adolescents were recruited to balance sports involvement and sex with each self-identifying their gender (n = 15 boys; n = 14 girls; n = 4 nonbinary). Using inductive and deductive techniques, we thematically analyzed the data. Deductive codes were drawn from the Food Literacy for Young Adults Framework including Functional (e.g., nutrition literacy), Relational (e.g., joy in shared meals), and Systems (e.g., food sustainability) competencies.

Results

Functional competencies were learned most and often through social media. When it came to differences in food literacy experiences between athletes and nonathletes, athletes valued more credible sources of information (e.g., parents compared with peers) and viewed food as fuel (e.g., eating for hunger cues) instead of as a way to form social bonds. Gender also played a role in adolescents’ recognition of the connection between food and mental health (function competency) and the sources of information athlete boys and girls valued (personal knowledge compared with romantic partners).

Conclusions

Improving all adolescents’ food literacy starts with developing skills to judge information credibility (e.g., media literacy). Programs, where adolescent athletes and nonathletes learn together,should also address challenges these groups face, such as eating for performance compared with socialization, the impact of gender on how adolescents view associations between food and mental health, and credible sources of information.