Crystal Smit

An Integrated Model 3 61 DISCUSSION The present study was the first to examine an integrated model for why young adolescents consume fruit, vegetables, and water by integrating a variety of theoretical perspectives, including planned behavior, social norms, and intrinsic motivation. Findings demonstrated that intrinsic motivation to eat fruits and vegetables and drink water did predict changes in behavior. In addition, young adolescents’ perceptions of how often their parents drank water (i.e., descriptive parental norms) also predicted behavioral change. The finding that behavioral intentions did not predict behavioral change is in line with ample research demonstrating that individuals often fail to transform their intentions into action (Sheeran, 2002). Rather than behavioral intention, intrinsic motivation to perform the behavior turned out to be one of the most important predictors for behavioral change. The present study was the first to include the role of both behavioral intention and intrinsic motivation in predicting dietary intake. These results suggest that for changing actual behavior, it is essential that young adolescents are intrinsically motivated to eat fruits and vegetables or drink water. These findings are consistent with the self-determination perspective and add to the growing body of research that intrinsic motivation is the key to changing, improving, and maintaining a healthier lifestyle in the long term (Mata et al., 2009; Pelletier et al., 2004; Ryan et al., 2008; Silva et al., 2011; Teixeira et al., 2015). The current study also demonstrated the importance of expanding the normative component of the theory of planned behavior. Findings revealed that only descriptive norms of parents predicted changes in young adolescents’ water consumption.Ontheonehand, thisfinding is in linewiththe literaturedistinguishing between separate types of normative influences, given that descriptive norms were a stronger predictor than injunctive norms for water consumption (Cialdini et al., 1991; for review, see Jones & Robinson, 2017; Robinson et al., 2014). On the other hand, the current study also showed that it is essential to distinguish between the sources of normative influences. After all, the findings showed that parental norms were a more important predictor of water consumption than the