The role of intentional and automatic processes in two health-promoting nutrition behaviours: a test across a middle-school and university sample

Objective: High sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and low fruit and vegetable intake are associated with a range of health issues. Both intentional and automatic processes have been found to play a significant role in health behaviour change; however, previous research has tended to focus on goal-directed habits, while other potentially important automatic factors (e.g., counter-intentional habit) have been largely ignored. The aim of the current study is to understand the role of both intentional and automatic processes (i.e., goal-directed and counter-intentional habits) in two health-promoting nutrition behaviours (i.e., eating the recommended serves of fruits and vegetables a day and restricting sugar-sweetened beverage consumption) across two age-cohorts (i.e., middle school students aged 11 – 14 years and university students aged 17 – 24 years). Methods: A prospective design with two waves of data collection spaced one week apart was adopted. Participants (Total N = 606) completed an initial survey comprising measures of past behaviour, intention, goal-directed habits, and counter-intentional habits. One week later, participants (n = 414) completed a self-reported measure of behaviour. Results: Structural equation modelling revealed that intentions significantly predicted both behaviours in both samples. Goal-directed habits predicted fruit and vegetable consumption in both samples, while counter-intentional habits only predicted the restriction of sugar-sweetened beverages in the middle-school sample. Conclusions: Current findings indicate that different types of automatic factors may play a role in explaining nutrition behaviours. Specifically, habits which were worded with an avoidance-orientation (i.e., the habit to not consume or avoid consuming) did not play a significant role in predicting future behaviour. Future research should explore the concept of avoidance-oriented habits including lay-beliefs and representations of them.