Gender-Driven Food Choice: Explaining School Milk Consumption of Boys and Girls

The literature on the factors influencing children’s consumption behaviour is vast; however, gender-specific consumption behaviour and the determinants driving these discriminative decisions are largely unknown. This article contributes insights to the role of gender in food preferences using the example of school milk consumption by German primary school children. Study subjects included pupils, their parents, teachers, and other school personnel. The results of the multilevel model reveal that there are various factors influencing the probability that a child will decide to order school milk. In addition to individual factors such as socio-economics, eating habits, and preferences, consumption behaviour is also affected by social environmental factors. These factors include the preferences of parents, the consumption behaviour of teachers, teachers’ attitudes, and the attitude of the school principal. Additionally, policy-driven aspects (e.g., school milk price, product range) were included in the analysis and proved to have an impact on a child’s decision to order school milk. Although the results are limited to consumption behaviour for school milk, they can be used in the development of new or the revision of existing school food programmes. The example of school milk may shed light on how specific measures affect boys’ and girls’ consumption, e.g., how they react to price reductions or specific school settings. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013