Abstract:
The current project had two main objectives. The first objective was to test the impact of a set of five supplemental boosters that were sent to children’s homes after participation in a Progressive Agriculture Safety Day®. The boosters were based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and were designed to emphasize components of the TPB in an attempt to determine which TPB construct was most effective for enhancing and extending the impact of safety day lessons. The second objective was to test the ability of the TPB to predict soda consumption in a sample of school-aged children. Three safety days in Alabama were selected for participation in this project, and data were collected from participants at three times: pretest, posttest, and three months after participation. The type of booster participants received did not have a differential impact upon intentions to reduce soda consumption or actual soda consumption at three-month follow-up. However, there was an overall effect of time. Intentions to reduce soda consumption improved at three-month follow-up compared to pretest and posttest. Although the Theory of Planned Behavior’s predictive power varied at each time point, it explained a small to medium amount of variance (ranging from 7% to 43%) in intentions to reduce soda consumption and actual soda consumption. Recent studies show that rural youth are 25-30% more likely to be overweight or obese than metropolitan youth, and soda consumption is likely a contributing factor. This study contributes to the knowledge base for effectively addressing rural overweight and health concerns through educational interventions.
