Eating Behaviour During Confinement: An Application of the Phenomenological Variant Ecological Systems Theory

Abstract

Consumers often express reasons for not preparing meals from scratch at home. The phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) is utilised in this study to analyse consumers’ self-reported eating behaviour during compulsory at-home confinement that affects health and wellbeing. The model offers a framework to investigate normative human development, such as risk and resilience, through characteristics of identity and context interactions, for example, individual or household difference and their experience, perception, and negotiations of stress. This study aimed to establish if, during a period of compulsory confinement when consumers had time, but limited access to convenience foods, changed their eating behaviour. The case study was conducted in an urban setting in South Africa, using a questionnaire with structured and unstructured questions. Participants were obtained through convenience and snowball sampling. The results showed that whether a strategy is adaptive or maladaptive is not always conclusive, since context often plays a part. More participants prepared food from scratch when food establishments were locked, but many fell back into their old habits once they re-opened. Females remained primarily responsible for food preparation, and they were also the largest portion of our sample. The value of the study is that we could see that education regarding healthy eating should be done more aggressively. In conclusion, the usefulness of applying the PVEST model to understand modern consumers’ behaviour towards food and eating during confinement was shown, and the application of this model showed that normative eating behaviour can probably not be changed in a matter of weeks, as consumers may well return to less optimal eating behaviour soon after.

Keywords

• eating behaviour
• confinement
• urban consumers
• phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory
• maladaptive eating behaviour