Abstract
Objective: We conducted this study to examine the factors related to the choice of confectioneries among adolescent girls and young adult women.
Methods: Four focus group interviews were conducted (twenty-three students in total), consisting of six junior high-school students, six high-school students, five university students, and six graduate students in February and April, 2014. The interviews were semi-structured, based on a script, and lasted 90 minutes. The participants discussed the reasons for selecting the confectioneries. In addition, they were administered a questionnaire about the purchase of the confectioneries, and demographics were gathered. Afterwards, the researchers transcribed the interviews, coded, and categorized them for data analysis.
Results: The factors related to the choice of confectioneries were categorized into sixty-four “subcategories” and nineteen [categories]. The categories included the internal and external factors. The internal factors included fifteen categories, such as [tastes] and [satisfactions]. The external factors included four categories, such as [environment] and [feature], and included [reputations] in only high-school students. The characteristic factors were “illustrations” on the packages in junior high-school students, “experience of diet” in university students, and “importance of preferences” in graduate students.
Conclusion: The choice of confectioneries was related to various factors. The results suggested that there were common factors (tastes and price) and characteristic factors (reputations) among adolescent girls and young adult women.
