The DOI matches its Crossref record; 3 of the 3 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Perceptions and Determinants of Eating for Health and Performance in High-Level Male Adolescent Rugby Union Players
Abstract
Sports nutrition recommendations provide guidance on dietary strategies to optimise sports performance. However, research indicates that young athletes often find it difficult to follow these guidelines in practice. Limited research exists on the determinants that influence adherence to sports nutrition guidelines. This study aimed to explore the perceptions and determinants of eating for health and performance in high-level male adolescent rugby union players. Determinants were explored using semi-structured individual interviews in New Zealand high-level male rugby union players (n = 20, 16–18 years). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then underwent thematic analysis. Perceptions of eating for health and performance included balance and variety, appropriate portions, and specific foods. Both adolescent- and sport-specific determinants influenced the food choices of participants. Determinants relevant to adolescent lifestyles included the influence of significant others such as peers and family but also included the taste, cost, convenience, and availability of food. Sports-specific determinants revolved around the desire to enhance sports performance, motivation to perform, and team culture. The media (mainstream and social media), physical appearance, and feeling good were identified as both adolescent- and sport-specific factors influencing food choice. These findings highlight the importance of having support and positive role modelling to help young athletes make optimal food choices for health and performance. Strategies to further enable healthy eating practices should aim to strengthen the support available to young athletes in the home, school, and sporting environments and should include education on appropriate social media use to inform eating for health and performance.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Dietary behaviours are also shaped by broader individual and environmental influences, including cooking ability, the home food environment, time constraints and the influence of parents, peers and coaches”
From Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice (2026) · cites this paper as [20]
In the citing paper
“Motivation also varied by context, with athletes more likely to adhere to dietary guidelines when driven by performance goals during the competitive season, whereas adherence declined during the off-season and injury periods [6,20].”
From Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice (2026) · cites this paper as [20]
In the citing paper
“At the social level, parents, coaches and peers emerged as both enablers and barriers to healthy dietary practices [6,19,20,44].”
From Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice (2026) · cites this paper as [20]
In the citing paper
“Time constraints and the cost and convenience of unhealthy food options further compounded these barriers [19,20,45].”
From Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice (2026) · cites this paper as [20]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010) · Business Horizons · doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003 · Cited by 17,875 · cited 1×
“An increase in social media use may explain differences in findings [28].”
BackgroundNutrition and Athletic Performance
(2016) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/mss.0000000000000852 · Cited by 1,305
A Review of Factors Influencing Athletes’ Food Choices
Birkenhead, K. L., & Slater, G. (2015) · Sports Medicine · doi:10.1007/s40279-015-0372-1 · Cited by 240
Research works printed but not linked: 24
- Desbrow, 2014, Sports Dietitians Australia position statement: Sports nutrition for the adolescent athlete, Int. J. Sport Nutr. Exerc. Metab., 24, 570, 10.1123/ijsnem.2014-0031 · DOI · Paper page
- Walsh, 2011, The body composition, nutritional knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and future education needs of senior schoolboy rugby players in Ireland, Int. J. Sport Nutr. Exerc. Metab., 21, 365, 10.1123/ijsnem.21.5.365 · DOI · Paper page
- Burrows, T., Harries, S.K., Williams, R.L., Lum, C., and Callister, R. (2016). The diet quality of competitive adolescent male rugby union players with energy balance estimated using different physical activity coefficients. Nutrients, 8. · DOI · Paper page
- Venus, 2014, Adequacy of nutrient intakes in elite junior basketball players, Int. J. Sport Nutr. Exerc. Metab., 24, 516, 10.1123/ijsnem.2013-0186 · DOI · Paper page
- Braga, 2005, Food habits and nutritional status assessment of adolescent soccer players. A necessary and accurate approach, Can. J. Appl. Physiol., 30, 18, 10.1139/h05-102 · DOI
- Spronk, 2015, Relationship between general nutrition knowledge and dietary quality in elite athletes, Int. J. Sport Nutr. Exerc. Metab., 25, 243, 10.1123/ijsnem.2014-0034 · DOI · Paper page
- Shepherd, 2006, Young people and healthy eating: A systematic review of research on barriers and facilitators, Health Educ. Res., 21, 239, 10.1093/her/cyh060 · DOI · Paper page
- Heaney, 2008, Towards an understanding of the barriers to good nutrition for elite athletes, Int. J. Sports Sci. Coach, 3, 391, 10.1260/174795408786238542 · DOI
- Croll, 2001, Healthy eating: What does it mean to adolescents?, J. Nutr. Educ., 33, 193, 10.1016/S1499-4046(06)60031-6 · DOI · Paper page
- Stevenson, 2007, Adolescents’ views of food and eating: Identifying barriers to healthy eating, J. Adolesc., 30, 417, 10.1016/j.adolescence.2006.04.005 · DOI · Paper page
- Fitzgerald, 2010, Factors influencing food choices of Irish children and adolescents: A qualitative investigation, Health Promot. Int., 25, 289, 10.1093/heapro/daq021 · DOI
- Payan, 2017, Perceived barriers and facilitators to healthy eating and school lunch meals among adolescents: A qualitative study, Am. J. Health Behav., 41, 661, 10.5993/AJHB.41.5.15 · DOI · Paper page
- Sylvetsky, A.C., Hennink, M., Comeau, D., Welsh, J.A., Hardy, T., Matzigkeit, L., Swan, D.W., Walsh, S.M., and Vos, M.B. (2013). Youth understanding of healthy eating and obesity: A focus group study. J. Obes., 2013. · DOI
- 2003, Why do kids eat healthful food? Perceived benefits of and barriers to healthful eating and physical activity among children and adolescents, J. Am. Diet. Assoc., 103, 497
- Puloka, 2017, Dietary behaviours and the mental well-being of New Zealand adolescents, J. Paediatr. Child Health, 53, 657, 10.1111/jpc.13524 · DOI
- Smart, 2001, Personal food systems of male college hockey players, Appetite, 37, 57, 10.1006/appe.2001.0408 · DOI
- Smith, 2016, Dietary intakes of elite 14- to 19-year-old English academy rugby players during a pre-season training period, Int. J. Sport Nutr. Exerc. Metab., 26, 506, 10.1123/ijsnem.2015-0317 · DOI
- Kazbare, 2014, Perceptions of healthy eating in transitional phases of life: Results of four focus groups with adolescents and older adults, Br. Food J., 114, 570
- Kalavana, 2010, Interpersonal and self-regulation determinants of healthy and unhealthy eating behaviour in adolescents, J. Health Psychol., 15, 44, 10.1177/1359105309345168 · DOI
- Loth, 2016, Food availability, modeling and restriction: How are these different aspects of the family eating environment related to adolescent dietary intake?, Appetite, 96, 80, 10.1016/j.appet.2015.08.026 · DOI
- Taylor, 2005, Determinants of healthy eating in children and youth, Can. J. Public Health, 96, S20
- Worme, 1990, Dietary patterns, gastrointestinal complaints, and nutrition knowledge of recreational triathletes, Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 51, 690, 10.1093/ajcn/51.4.690 · DOI
- Long, 2011, Personal food systems of male collegiate football players: A grounded theory investigation, J. Athl. Train., 46, 688, 10.4085/1062-6050-46.6.688 · DOI
- Hackman, 1992, The athletic trainer’s role in modifying nutritional behaviors of adolescent athletes: Putting theory into practice, J. Athl. Train., 27, 262
Cited by
Irwin, N., Ó Catháin, C., Ward, C., & Kelly, D. T. (2026) · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · doi:10.1080/15502783.2026.2671431 · Cited by 4
Metadata
- Authors
- Stokes, E. G., Hughes, R., Shaw, D. M., O’Connor, H. T., & Beck, K. L.
- Affiliations
- School of Sport Exercise and Nutrition, College of Health, Massey University, Auckland 0745, New Zealand
- School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7001, Australia
- The Blues Rugby Franchise, Auckland 1051, New Zealand
- Discipline of Exercise and Sport Science, Faculty of Health Sciences and Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney 1825, Australia
- ORCID
- Shaw, David M.
- Venue
- Sports
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2018-05-28
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 49
- ISSN
- 2075-4663
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 3
- Language
- en
- Funders
- Massey University (Massey University Summer Dissemination Grant for Master’s Research)
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.