International students have cultures and practices that may affect their eating habits regardless of the lifestyle influence in Australia. However, there may be some facets that may affect their eating habits both positively and negatively. This research seeks to find out whether a food related lifestyle model predicts healthy eating behaviours of international students studying in Australia. One can use a theoretical framework such as the food related lifestyle model to understand the factors influencing the food choices of international students studying in Australian. Grunert, Bruns and Bisp (1993) put forth the idea of a food-related lifestyle model that explained food consumption. The model identified ways to categorise those influences on the behaviour of food consumption. The categories are ‘use situations’, concrete attributes’, ‘quality considerations’, ‘shopping and meal preparation’, ‘perceived consequences’, and ‘values’ (Grunert, Bruns & Bisp 1993). By considering this construct and in particular the social norms of international students in Australia the research study will hope to identify those values and influences that shape individual eating habits of the population and evaluate it to see how it has been influenced and changed if at all.

Research QuestionHow has studying in Australia affected your diet? Using a food related lifestyle model the study will investigate the effects of living in Australia on International students’ diets.

Aims and HypothesesThe purpose of the study is to provide information as to the influences that shape international students eating habits while studying in Australia. It is expected that this study will be a directional one based upon the research literature as the outcomes will follow that which has already been determined (Creswell 2009).

HypothesesH1: Food related lifestyles and beliefs significantly influence healthy eating behaviours amongst international students.

Methods and TechniquesStudy DesignThe study took the form of a cross sectional study also known as a transversal study. This type of study involves studying a section of a population under study (Creswell 2009). The section thus chosen has to be well representative of the whole population and thus results emanating thereof can be said to provide a picture of the whole population (Curall & Tower 2003). The study adopted the quantitive approach for data collection and analysis. The method was ideal due to the logical and systematic way that it prescribes for data collection (Curral & Tower, 2003). The options it offers in terms of tabulation, graphing and other forms of data analysis makes it give more options for data interpretation and analysis. Being a positivist approach, it helps in data analysis whether a researcher is inductive or like in this case deductive, (Creswell, Trout and Barbuto 2004). The study’s aim being to profile the eating habits of international students in Australia, it required methodical and exhaustive data exploration and measuring techniques and the qualitative method sufficed as sufficient. A questionnaire was applied by the researcher to collect data. The questionnaire was well thought out so as to get all round information and to minimise the time taken to answer the questions. The research took the form of a cross sectional survey also known as a transversal or prevalence study which is a descriptive study. This means that the researcher identified a subset of the whole population that could be said to be representative of the whole group (Kraus 2005). The questionnaire comprised both open and closed format questions with one inferential question.

Participants and RecruitmentThe researcher sought to identify international students at Flinders University and did this through the assistance of friends. Once identified the researcher found ways in which they could meet up with the student and plan a time and place for the interview. There being different categories among international students, e.g. by sex, year of study, level of study etc. the researcher invested time to study targeted respondents so as to ensure that all these categories were incorporated into the study thus making the subset well representative. Convenience sampling which involves picking respondents from the available group and stratification which involves dividing up a group into strata of homogenic characteristics (Devane et al 2004) were the tools that helped the researcher overcome this challenge Data CollectionThe survey investigated the behaviours and customs of the subset to identify traits. The questionnaire was the chosen mode of data collection. This was ideal due to the scarcity of time and the researchers over insistence on the need not to inconvenience the respondents more than necessary. The other reason for the questionnaire being the most ideal mode of data collection is the need to rate the answers on different levels and this method has been proven to be simple, quick in administration and easy to analyse (Creswell 2009). The questions took both the open and closed format. The data thus collected was analysed using SPSS version 16 and the results presented in graphical, tabular and arithmetic formats. The questions were designed to draw as much feedback as possible on the eating habits of international students and were descriptive in nature. There was one question which was inferential and it was aimed at establishing the respondents’ beliefs. The multiple choice format and Likert based scales which is a preferred method for determining ranking of answers (Huck 2008, in Creswell 2009) were used. The questions were set with the assistance of findings from previous studies and the questionnaire was self administered. The questionnaire was constructed with the the eventual purpose of analysis in mind. The input of the course supervisor was priceless and the multiple choices were double checked to ensure that they capture all necessary aspects of the research. Care was taken to use only positive statements and was in easy to understand language and was checked for grammatical errors, spelling and punctuation to ensure all respondents understood it in the same manner (De vaus, 2002) The return rate for the Questionnaire was 100% since it was self administered.

Data analysisThe data collected was analysed using computer based software (SPSS version 19 in particular). The data was presented using statistical tools like tables and in arithmetic form for the hypothesis test.

References

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