Abstract:

Introduction:
Dietary habits of adolescents in secondary education are often suboptimal. As adolescents grow older and gain more control over their eating behavior, there is a greater likelihood that they will make unhealthy food choices and skip meals. Additionally, they encounter food temptations everywhere in their environment, constantly challenging their willpower. On one hand, there is an urgent need for environmental changes to promote healthier choices. On the other hand, an environment free of food temptations is not realistic. That is why it is important to enable adolescents to deal with those food temptations. The school environment in secondary education is an important setting to improve adolescents awareness and skills in dealing with food temptations.

Objective:
The aim of this research is to develop an educational intervention to support adolescents in managing food temptations, with a focus on creating awareness, self-regulation and the social pressure associated with food temptations.

Methodology:
In the first phase, a literature review on determinants of coping with food temptations in adolescents was conducted. The most important and changeable determinants, which form the basis of the intervention, were compiled and selected. Secondly, the intervention was developed, according to the Intervention Mapping Protocol. In the third phase, the intervention was piloted in three secondary schools in Flanders. Changes in (determinants of) behavior were measured through a questionnaire before, 1 week after, and 3 months after the intervention.

Results:
The intervention targets the determinants ‘awareness’ and ‘self-regulation’ and consists of a) a workshop, b) a complementary e-learning as a train-the-trainer for teachers and c) a board game ‘The Temptation Road’. The workshop is structured according to the double diamond model and encourages students to invent creative solutions themselves.

The workshop was evaluated through a short questionnaire and a classical discussion. The workshop was well received by the students, who reported gaining new knowledge. They expressed a positive attitude towards managing food temptations. The creative assignment was highly enjoyable for them. However, it should be noted that the workshop triggered hunger among the students, indicating the need for increased attention in this regard. Additionally, the students expressed a desire for a more practical approach, suggesting the potential to enhance the workshop's practicality beyond its current theoretical focus. Also the teachers were enthusiastic and want to implement the workshop in their classes.

Discussion and Conclusion:
We developed an intervention on managing food temptations in adolescents. However the evaluation is still ongoing, the process evaluation is promising. The strength of the workshop lies in its co-creative approach. During a follow-up project, we will focus on further evaluation and implementation of the intervention, for example by integrating the workshop into the school curriculum.

Keywords:

Food temptations, education, workshop, health promotion, adolescents.