Why People Skip Breakfast - Research Proposal Example

WHY PEOPLE SKIP BREAKFAST Student’s name Course &Code Professor’s name University City Date Contents 1.0 Introduction 4 1.1 Why it is important to investigate the reasons that people miss breakfast. 4 1.2The reasons why people skip breakfast 5 1.3 The Planned Behaviour Theory 6 2.0 Aim of the study 6 3.0 Methodology 6 3.1 The planned behaviour theory 7 3.2 Research Approach 7 4.0 Results 9 5.0 Discussion 11 6.0 Conclusion 13 7.0 Recommendations 14 Reference list 15 List of Figures Table: 1Attitude Table 2: Subjective Norms Table: 3 Perceived Behavioural Control Figure 1: Attitude Figure 2: Subjective norm Why people skip breakfast 1.0 Introduction It is easy, during busy mornings, to miss breakfast by simply letting it fall low. However, finding some few minutes to take it is essential and healthy (Katie, Lawton, & Dye, 2013). Breakfast offers the brain and the body fuel after a long night fast. That is the origin of the name- to break the fast. According to nutritionists, breakfast should be consumed within two hours after one wakes up. It is expected to provide 20%-35% of the guideline daily allowance (GDA). Breakfast is, therefore, an essential meal of the day. Nevertheless, a lot of people still skip breakfast due to many reasons. This essay focuses on establishing the reasons why people skip breakfast. 1.1 Why it is important to investigate the reasons that people miss breakfast. Investigating breakfast and why some people tend to miss it is very fundamental. This is because skipping breakfast has got a range of effects on the body of a human being. Consuming breakfast is, to a large extent, associated with outcomes that are positive for micronutrient intake, diet quality, lifestyle factors and weight status. Breakfast positively impacts on a child’s learning life. It positively affects the cognitive development, school performance and the behaviour of a child. When examining the performance and development of a child, it is very crucial to investigate why households miss on breakfast. It is, therefore, necessary to know why people miss breakfast so that mechanisms of encouraging breakfast consumption are put in (Conners & Blouin, 1982) According the Guardian (2010), approximately 31 million Americans do not take breakfast due to several reasons. About 32% of Britons skip breakfast. One in every ten people never takes breakfast; those who take breakfast do not spend more than 9.8 minutes daily. 13% of people in Spain miss breakfast compared to 18% in France and 13% in Italy. Skipping breakfast makes a person, and it could lead to some chronic diseases in a kid’s adulthood. According to research, failing to take breakfast increases the body fats because a person tends to consume more food during the day to control the severe hunger. Larger quantities of food have more calories than timely consumed less food research suggests (Cooksey, 1963). 1.2The reasons why people skip breakfast There are many of reasons why individuals miss breakfast. For instance, Britons tend to be too busy to take breakfast (The Guardian, 2010). They are either finishing up the office work they carried home or are doing household chores. Most people, however, miss breakfast because of the tendency of remaining in bed for long hours. This is common during weekends or of days. Some people skip breakfast because of excuses related to poor time management, laziness, and cutting weight. However, poor people skip breakfast because they cannot afford its cost. Most people, especially in Africa, both grownups and the young miss breakfast because they cannot afford. Bidgood and Cameron (1992), suggest that people below the poverty line skip breakfast twice often compared to others. Research shows that women tend to skip not only breakfast but also lunch as compared to men. This is related to the weight losing mechanisms (Bidgood, & Cameron, 1992). 1.3 The Planned Behaviour Theory This study utilised the planned behaviour theory to explain skipping of breakfast among individuals. Based on this theory, intent is the most direct and vital predictor of an individual’s behaviour. The theory has productively been useful in explaining a number of health associated behaviours among them the behaviour of food consumption such a skipping of meals (Mullan 2012). The theory explains that intent is influenced by three main elements: attitude that involves the individual’s general assessment of the constructiveness or the negativity of the result of the performance of certain conduct; subjective norm involves pressures from social factors to decided on whether or not to behave in a certain way; and the perceived control of behaviour which entail the view of the individual on the simplicity or the complexity of performing the intended behaviour (Mullan 2012). This theory will, therefore, give more insight on whether people skip breakfast due to their attitude towards breakfast, social pressure or the perception that they can skip breakfast as a controlled choice. 2.0 Aim of the study The aim of this study is establishing why many people contemporarily skip breakfast. This aim is met by establishing the importance of breakfast and how it affects the body health wise. With this aim one can, therefore, establish why it is important to investigate the reasons why people miss breakfast. This study focuses on the research already done on the topic of breakfast by various scholars. The aim can only be met by having an open mind and considering the excuses and myths people have about skipping breakfast. 3.0 Methodology 3.1 The planned behaviour theory This study utilised the planned behaviour theory to explain skipping of breakfast among individuals. Based on this theory, the intent is the most direct and vital predictor of an individual’s behaviour. The theory has productively been useful in explaining a number of health associated behaviours among them the behaviour of food consumption such a skipping of meals (Mullan 2012). The theory explains that intent is influenced by three main elements: attitude that involves the individual’s general assessment of the constructiveness or the negativity of the result of the performance of a certain conduct; subjective norm involves pressures from social factors to decided on whether or not to behave in a certain way; and the perceived control of behaviour which entail the view of the individual on the simplicity or the complexity of performing the intended behaviour (Mullan 2012). This theory will, therefore, give more insight on whether people skip breakfast due to their attitude towards breakfast, social pressure or the perception that they can skip breakfast as a controlled choice. 3.2 Research Approach The research was quantitative in nature. Questionnaires were administered to ten willing participants. The researcher approached participants randomly in different places and the order in which the respondents completed the questionnaires was counterbalanced and purposive in that the half of the participants recruited skipped consumption of breakfast while the other half dutifully consumed breakfast. The study targeted adults to aid the study by responding to the given questionnaire. The questionnaires were self-administered by the researcher to the intended participants for the study. Respondents completed the theory of planned behaviour questionnaire which was based on its three constructs of attitude which is basically an individual view of something, subjective norm, for instance pressures that are of social origin and perceived behavioural control. Participants were chosen in an unbiased form as the recruitment was random thus the study was able to achieve varied responses due to the varied locations, personalities and cultures of the respondents. The questionnaires were filled and returned to the researcher on the same day after which they were taken for analysis. The questionnaire presented is built on the three elements of the rationale of planned behaviour that were used in the study to determine why people skip breakfast. Under the three constructs, there are questions based on a 5 point likert scale that were used to measure the intent toward behaviour. The level of agreement was presented across different response levels. Questionnaires on Five Point Likert Scale Table: 1Attitude Question Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Neutral Somewhat Agree Strongly Agree I do not feel that breakfast is an important meal, so I skip it. The health food is important for me. I think eating breakfast is the cause of digestion trouble. I always strive to reduce my digestion problems. Table 2: Subjective Norms Question Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Neutral Somewhat Agree Strongly Agree I only eat breakfast when my wife does. My wife’s opinion is important to me. I like to join a group when I eat my meal. I don’t like to eat alone I only eat breakfast when my wife does. Table: 3 Perceived Behavioral Control Question Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Neutral Somewhat Agree Strongly Agree When I do meet my family members in the morning I often skip breakfast. Having breakfast with my family members is important to me. I do not like preparing anything during morning. I always feel quit sleepy and lazy in the morning 4.0 Results Based on the questionnaire, the three constructs from the theory were measured on a 5- point response scale on the level of agreement. Figure 1: Attitude Most respondents strongly disagreed with both statements that stated that breakfast is not an important meal and that breakfast causes indigestion. Figure 2: Subjective Norm Respondents were neutral on the statement of eating breakfast only when their spouses are also engaged in the meal. One respondent however strongly agreed to state that it was easier to take breakfast when his wife joined him. Most respondents strongly agreed that they liked to join a group when eating their meals. Figure 3: Perceived behavioural control The results showed that most of the respondents were neutral on the statement of skipping breakfast when they met their family members in the morning. Most respondents did not like preparing anything in the morning as revealed by the findings. 5.0 Discussion The present study sought to investigate the reasons why people skipped breakfast using the theory of planned behaviour. Results from the study, based on attitude toward breakfast showed that most respondents strongly disagreed with the statement that breakfast is not an important meal. This does not necessarily mean that breakfast to them is important and neither does the statement diminish the importance of breakfast. The outcome of the consumption of breakfast will directly influence its intake by an individual (Mullan 2014). When an individual finds value in the outcome of taking breakfast, it directly affects the consumption of the morning meal as the individual’s attitude to the consumption is affected. On the construct of subjective norm, results from the study showed that most respondents were neutral on the statement that they ate breakfast only when their spouse took it with them. Most respondents also agreed that they would rather join a group of friends when eating. Research that has been done earlier previously on the influence of subjective norm shows that it is the weakest in predicting intention (Kothe et al. 2011). Based on the fact that most of the respondents were adults, it can be explained that there is no existence of parental control over the intake of breakfast thus the decision of partaking in breakfast will be influenced by a different factor aside from the subjective norm. The privacy of breakfast also explains the difficulty of people who prefer eating among company to engage in the solitary meal. The response on skipping breakfast on meeting one's family in the morning had neutral results. Most respondents stated that they did not like preparing anything in the morning. Perceived behavioural control is a vital construct in predicting behaviour and intent. The decision to take breakfast is however not always under the control of the individual (Mullan 2012). An individual may have hectic schedules that interfere with their control over their intentions. The choice of taking breakfast, however, is influenced by personal motivation and perceived behavioural control (Mullan 2012). The study found out that attitudes and perceived behavioural control greatly contributed to perceived intent while subjective norms seemed to be more docile. This result is quite in the line of research that has been done previously that shows that subjective norms least affect intention (Armitage & Connor 2001). This study thus showed the relevance of the theory that explains behaviour that is planned in detailing the reasons for consumption and non-consumption of breakfast. Though other factors have roles to play in the issue of individuals skipping breakfast, planned behaviour, as explained in the theory is a great motivator of intent to consume breakfast. The limitation to the study was that it was heavily reliant on self report measure of individuals. More objective measures are needed to effectively study behaviour and these would include observation. This would serve to strengthen the findings on breakfast consumption and planned behaviour. The study was also limited to a small sample size that may not have given adequate results of the real situation of planned behaviour and consumption of morning meals. The timeframe of the study was also limited as a lengthily researched study would have most likely produced an advanced state of findings for the study. 6.0 Conclusion This research study concludes that the rationale entailing planned behaviour is a framework that can envisage breakfast consumption conduct. The study also suggests that the constructs of attitudes, social pressures, more commonly referred to as subjective norm and behavioural control that is perceived augment the objective to partake or not to partake in breakfast. These constructs clearly explain the reasons that individuals may not be inclined to take breakfast though they do not serve as the only reference to such kind of nutritive behaviour. The following section thus gives recommendations based on the conclusion reached upon by the study. 7.0 Recommendations The study recommended that the findings on why people skip breakfast not only be used to explain behaviour, but also to change the current behaviour of individuals skipping breakfast. The results of the findings can be used to change the attitudes of individuals about consumption of breakfast. Given that poor food consumption is directly linked to health problems and increase in the risk of lifestyle diseases this study recommends behavioural intervention to enhance the capacity to control behaviour among individuals which result in the promotion of health. Reference list Armitage, C., & Conner, M. (2001). Efficacy of the Theory of Planned Behaviour: A metaanalytic review. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 471-499. Kothe, E., & Mullan, B. (2011). Increasing the frequency of breakfast consumption. British Food Journal. 113(6), 784-796 Mullan B., Wong, C., Kothe, E., MacGam C., (2012). Predicting breakfast consumption: a comparison of the theory of planned behaviour and the health action process approach. Research article Mullan B., Wong, C. (2014). Predicting breakfast consumption: An application of the theory of planned behaviour and the investigation of past behaviour and executive function. British Journal of Health Psychology Read More