| dc.description.abstract | Overweight and obesity among adolescents have been continuously increasing year in and year out. This has been reported across all socio-economic groups in South Africa with adolescents having higher percentages of overweight and obesity than most of Southern countries. It has been postulated that a change in nutrition consumption within South African communities has led to these alarming rates of overweight and obesity. This change in nutrition is also being witnessed in Gauteng’s private school environments, including Pretoria’s Central Business District (CBD) high schools. The food environments in schools (school food environments) have the ability to shape the learner’s eating behaviours, food choices, and perceptions about healthy or unhealthy foods. Little is known about the perceptions that private high school learners have about their school food environments and what they would suggest to improve these environments so that they may be healthier. There is dire need for qualitative research pertaining school food environments so that a tailor-made transdisciplinary health intervention can be implemented in most of privately owned schools. The main aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of the learners in a private high school in Pretoria about their school food environment and how they would like to change their school food environment to be healthier. The study followed a qualitative research design employing focus group discussions (FGDs) in which a total of 29 Grade 10, 11 and 12 high school learners participated. Purposive sampling was used during the study applying predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Three FGDs were conducted and audio recordings were made using handheld tape recorders during the FGDs. After the FGDs, the interviews that were recorded were transcribed so that they data can be analysed. ATLA-ti was then used to analyse the qualitative data. The themes were developed during the data analysis. The study revealed that the high school learners perceived that the food sold within the school environment to be unhealthy. They were concerned about the cholesterol and sugar levels of most of the food items that are sold within the school’s premises. The high school learners also felt that food hygiene was not well practised, especially during food preparation and handling. The learners mostly bought muffins, ice cream, sandwiches, potato crispsm, chips, cold drinks, sweets, fruit juices, biscuits, chocolates, pies, water, energy drinks, and potato fries. Some high school learners also reported that they bought their food from fast food outlets outside of the school premises. At the time of the study, most learners did not carry lunch boxes to school simply because they had very little time to prepare the food for school. Food prices was another concern raised by the learners. They complained that food sold at the tuckshop was too expensive and did not warrant to be sold at those prices. The study concluded that a transdisciplinary approach might bring about a change in school food environments through learner engagement, health education, changing the menu, physical activity, establishing a feeding programme, and parental involvement. Word count: 496 | en_US |
