Women's income and healthy eating perception

Purpose - The purpose of the chapter is to explore the relation between women's healthy eating intention and food attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and barriers with a focus on the effect of women's income differences. Methodology/approach - The research applies the Theory of Planned Behavior, including attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived barriers, and ability opportunity resources. Close-ended survey responses of 704 women between ages 25 and 65 years, affluent and at-risk-of-poverty women in three EU-member countries were analyzed. Findings - Women are mostly positively inclined towards healthy eating, and income does not differentiate women's inclination. Influencing factors are perceived behavioral control, attitudes towards healthy eating, subjective norms, and level of knowledge regarding healthy food. Barriers, when present, are similar for lower or higher income women and relate to routinized family habits and food affordability and availability. Research limitations/implications - Future research should thoroughly investigate family network and structure features, with a focus on family food preferences and habits. Social and practical implications - Encouraging women's healthy behavior also impacts children and men, and vice-versa. There is need to target all family components with enjoyable, self-rewarding, emotionally gratifying, and pleasant tasting food. Originality/value - Income is an overestimated driver in healthy food choices. Women are strongly influenced by personal and environmental factors, mainly personal control, feelings, and family habits.