2134/20315 Natalie Pearson Natalie Pearson Stuart Biddle Stuart Biddle Lauren Williams Lauren Williams Anthony Worsley Anthony Worsley David Crawford David Crawford Kylie Ball Kylie Ball Adolescent television viewing and unhealthy snack food consumption: the mediating role of home availability of unhealthy snack foods Loughborough University 2016 Television viewing Energy-dense snack foods Mediation Home availability Adolescents Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified 2016-02-12 14:38:58 Journal contribution https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Adolescent_television_viewing_and_unhealthy_snack_food_consumption_the_mediating_role_of_home_availability_of_unhealthy_snack_foods/9622418 Objective: To examine whether home availability of energy-dense snack foods mediates the association between television viewing (TV) and energy-dense snack consumption among adolescents. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. Subjects: Adolescents (n=2984) from Years 7 and 9 of secondary school completed a web- based survey, between September 2004 and July 2005, assessing their energy-dense snack food consumption, school day and weekend day TV viewing and home availability of energy-dense snack foods. Results: School day and weekend day TV viewing were positively associated with energy-dense snack consumption among adolescent boys (β=0.003, p<0.001) and girls (β=0.03, p<0.001). Furthermore, TV viewing (school and weekend day) were positively associated with home availability of energy-dense snack foods among adolescent boys and girls and home availability of energy-dense snack foods was positively associated with energy-dense snack food consumption among boys (β=0.26, p<0.001) and girls (β=0.28, p<0.001). Home availability partly mediated the association between TV viewing and energy-dense snack consumption. Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that TV viewing has a significant role to play in adolescent unhealthy eating behaviours. Future research should assess the efficacy of methods to reduce adolescent energy-dense snack food consumption by targeting parents to reduce home availability of energy-dense foods, and on reducing TV viewing behaviours of adolescents.