The purpose of this paper was to document the success and failures of applying Social Cognitive Theory to increase breakfast consumption in a military setting. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, delivering performance and health benefits. Increasing rates of breakfast consumption may be improved through the application of theory.
Ready to Go, a theory-informed intervention, was piloted in 2022 in one army base in Australia. Ready to Go aimed to embed nine social cognitive theory (SCT) constructs within the pilot programme. Nine SCT indicators were tested using a pre–post design to test whether the theory could be applied to understand potential drivers of behavioural change. A total of 79 participants completed the pre-survey and 74 participants completed the post-survey.
Statistically significant differences were observed for one SCT construct, namely, knowledge, with 10 out of 24 knowledge items improving during the pilot intervention and an increase in rates of breakfast eating on Wednesdays at home was observed. Rates of breakfast eating increased by 13% (from 68% prior to Ready to Go compared to 81% afterwards). Programme participants were satisfied with the programme and reported receiving benefits from programme participation.
Programme data indicates that breakfast eating rates increased and knowledge about healthy eating improved. This paper documents the successes and failures of applying SCT to a pilot programme that aimed to increase breakfast eating rates. This study raises more questions than answers, providing a rich avenue for future research that aims to improve theory application.
The programme used SCT. As far as the authors know, this application of a full reciprocal triad model for breakfast frequency within an institutional setting is novel. Although the theory showed promise for increasing breakfast frequency, adaptation and refinement of the measures may be required for this context to provide more accurate and applicable measurement.
