Work

Shifting peer norms, shifting behavior? Optimizing educational interventions to promote adolescents’ sustainable dietary choices

Year: 2025

Type: article

Study designs: Randomized Controlled Trial, Clinical Trial

Abstract: Two preregistered randomized experiments (Study 1: N = 381, age 12–17, 47.5 % girls, 90 % Dutch; Study 2: N = 468, age 12–19, 52.8 % girls, 79.7 % Dutch) tested whether educational interventions to promote adolescents' sustainable behavior can be optimized by harnessing their peer status motive. Across studies, Bayesian informative hypothesis testing indicated strong support (PMPs 0.896 to 0.981, BFs 10.02 to 58.03) for the hypothesis that educational messaging promoted adolescents' sustainable dietary behavior and behavior intentions compared to unrelated messaging; that peer norm messaging amplified the motivational effect of education; and that dynamic (“more and more youth choose to eat less meat”) and static (“some youth choose to eat less meat”) norm messaging was equally effective. Effect sizes were small to medium. These findings suggest that educational interventions more effectively promote adolescents’ sustainable behavior when tailored to their developmentally salient peer status motive.

Source: Journal of Environmental Psychology

DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102880

Authors: Judith van de Wetering, Stathis Grapsas, Astrid Poorthuis, Sander Thomaes

Institution: Utrecht University

Language: English

Topic: Environmental Education and Sustainability

Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,380