Food in my life: How Australian adolescents perceive and experience their foodscape

Food choice has long been recognized as an interaction between psychological, social, cultural, economic, and biological forces through life course events and experiences. Adolescence is a particularly sensitive life stage during which personal and external environments influence food decisions and attitudes that can have long-term implications. Young people represent future households, yet little is understood about their perspectives on, and experiences of, their foodscape. To address this, a photovoice study with thirty-two students was undertaken at three state high schools with differing foodscapes in South East Queensland (Australia). Adolescent perspectives on foodscapes highlighted the food in front of them (either common or favourite foods), food routines, their emotional relationship with food, and the important role that family has in shaping their relationship with food (in particular mothers). Adolescents demonstrated an astute awareness of healthy/good and unhealthy/bad foods in relation to ingredients, ways of eating and different types of foods. Yet they expressed noticeable confusion on this matter, referring to some foods as “ healthy-ish ” , or describing a "balanced" diet as consuming something healthy followed by something unhealthy. We found that adolescents are inundated by discretionary foods on a daily basis, however, are not particularly cognisant of them. These findings have direct implications for preventative health messages targeting adolescents.


Introduction
Many adult food consumption values, habits, preferences, attitudes and behaviours are learnt and developed during the crucial socialization period of childhood (Devine et al., 2023;Fitzgerald et al., 2009;Francis & Davis, 2015;Nelson et al., 2008).As these views and habits become increasingly less flexible with age, cementing healthy perspectives on food during childhood and adolescence is critical.
The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommendation for 12-18 year old adolescents is to consume between five and five and a half serves (one serve is approximately 150 g) of vegetables every day, two serves of fruit, six to seven serves of grain, two and a half serves of protein (lean meat, fish, poultry, tofu, eggs, legumes/beans, nuts and seeds) and three and a half serves of dairy (cheese, yoghurt, milk and/or alternatives;National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013).However, the Australian National Health Survey (ABS, 2018) found that 40% of young people did not eat enough fruit and 95% did not eat enough vegetables to meet these Guidelines.Further, the 2011-2012 Queensland Health report found that teenagers (aged 14-18 years) derived 45% of daily total energy from unhealthy foods and 32% consumed snack food daily (Queensland Health, 2018).Ensaff et al. (2015) recorded a clear disconnect between the need for plant-based foods (vegetables, fruit, grains and nuts) consumption and the considerations used by adolescents to make food choices.
Children and adolescents' dietary patterns differ between genders and change with age, however the following factors appear to strongly influence the development of their food preferences and intake: food availability, role modelling, mealtime structure, free time, health knowledge/beliefs/concerns, body image, media, and peer influences (Allman-Farinelli et al., 2019;Dammann & Smith, 2010;Ding et al., 2012;Ensaff et al., 2015;Heidelberger & Smith, 2015;Ronto et al., 2021).
Although parental influence plays a large role in the diets of younger children, parental influence on diet diminishes with age due to increasingly forming independence and relying on peers as resources, conforming to adolescent social norms, and sometimes as an act of parental defiance (Fleming et al., 2020(Fleming et al., , p. 2019;;Hesketh et al., 2005;Karimi et al., 2023;Neufeld et al., 2022;Sloan et al., 2008).But interestingly, long term there are more similarities in habitual intakes between adolescents and their parents, than between adolescents and their friends (Hill, 2002).O'Dea (2003) found that "adolescents are looking to their parents and teachers to encourage, support, and enable them to be involved in more healthful behaviours" (p.500).In some circumstances, young people even considered their parents were completely responsible and blamed them for their poor eating habits (Lautenschlager & Smith, 2007;Stevenson et al., 2007;Story & Resnick, 1986).
The family environment therefore strongly influences dietary intake and dietary habits in young children; but peer groups, lifestyle and food marketing gain increasing influence in older children and adolescents, resulting in increased independent multi-factored decision making (Adamo & Brett, 2014;Fox & Timmer, 2020;Gangemi et al., 2018;Moreno et al., 2005;Sloan et al., 2008).Pearce et al. (2009) found that children considered that availability, tastes and preferences, price, proximity and convenience, social and parental influences, choice, familiarity, classroom practices (e.g., treats by teachers or home economic classes where they often cook less healthy meals but felt obliged to eat it), marketing and online influences (including social media) were also key factors making it harder for them to make healthful food choices (Adamo & Brett, 2014;Evans et al., 2023;Furst et al., 1996;George & McDuffie, 2007;Ronto et al., 2021;Watts et al., 2015).
Adolescents are aware that to achieve good health one must eat the right food, exercise and avoid bad habits (such as smoking, drugs and binge drinking (Easthope & White, 2006)).According to Australian adolescents (11-18 years old), health requires having a good diet consisting of daily serves of fresh fruit and vegetables and little "junk-food" (Easthope & White, 2006)."Benefits [perceived by children] of healthful eating included improvements to cognitive and physical performance, fitness, endurance, psychological benefits, physical sensation (feeling good physically) and production of energy" (O'Dea, 2003, p. 497).Although globally adolescents are well informed about good health and nutrition practices, this knowledge frequently does not translate into healthy food behaviour (Devine et al., 2023;Giskes et al., 2005;Moore Heslin & McNulty, 2023;Neufeld et al., 2022).This is in part due to adolescent food choices often being underpinned by a combination of factors including: individual characteristics, social influences (family and peers), macro-level environment (cultural, political and economic factors) and physical environments (school, after-school programs, home and neighbourhood) (Cantarero et al., 2013;Croll et al., 2001;Ensaff et al., 2015;Heidelberger & Smith, 2015;Parkinson et al., 2017;Watts et al., 2015).It is therefore critical to consider "the relationships among the multiple factors that impact health and nutrition, and the focus on the connections between people and their environments" (Story et al., 2008, p. 254).
The food environment commonly describes the physical, economic, political and socio-cultural contexts of food surrounding individuals (Swinburn et al., 2013); however the expanded idea of "foodscapes" encompasses the places and spaces where food is acquired, prepared, talked about, or some form of meaning is gathered from food (MacKendrick, 2014;Mikkelsen, 2011;Uhlmann et al., 2018).Food choices can therefore influence foodscapes (MacKendrick, 2014), but foodscapes can also influence food choices, preferences and dietary decisions (Clary et al., 2017;Kelly et al., 2011;Neufeld et al., 2022;Symonds et al., 2013;Tiedje et al., 2014).In contrast to food environments, the term foodscape does not refer to food environments as being external to individuals, but includes how the food landscape is perceived, and socially shaped, by individuals and policies (Vonthron et al., 2020).By definition, this means that foodscapes cannot be fixed (Clary et al., 2017;MacKendrick, 2014) nor will an individual experience the foodscape in the same way as others.Food environment factors influencing adolescent food choices are relatively well established in the literature, however looking at foodscapes allows for a much deeper analysis of the sources of influences that are currently absent from the public health and nutrition discourse.This study therefore aimed to understand how Australian adolescents perceive, experience and interact with their foodscapes, to inform the development of preventative health messages for this frequently overlooked age group and hence encourage healthier food relationships and behaviours.

Study design and setting
To elicit the "lived" foodscape experience of Australian adolescents, the photovoice methodology was used in different foodscapes within the greater Brisbane area (Queensland, Australia).Photovoice helps understand "lived" experiences by using documentary photography to depict people's perception of the environment both visually (through photographs) and verbally (through stimulated discussions/stories about the photos) (Heidelberger & Smith, 2016).Photovoice was first used and outlined by Wang and Burris (1997) and has since been used successfully with differing age and cultural groups (Castleden et al., 2008;Wang & Burris, 1994).This methodology has mainly been used for underprivileged populations but has more recently been used with children to increase their interest by encouraging creativity as well as allowing children to use a medium that they already are familiar with and increasingly use (Fitzgerald et al., 2009;Gangemi et al., 2018;Heidelberger & Smith, 2016;Pearce et al., 2009).
Three state-funded high schools (Year 7-12; ages 12-13 in Year and graduate at approximately 17-18 years of age in Year 12) with different foodscapes were selected to participate in the study.One school is in a rural area surrounded by food production (referred to as the Rural HS), one is located in a major city (City HS), and the third school is located in the same major city but offers agricultural programs (Ag Program HS).The Rural HS (with 941 students) has a lower index of community socio-education advantage than the Ag Program HS (1012 students) and the City HS (1047 students) (ACARA, 2018).The Rural HS has 5-7% more Indigenous adolescents, but has fewer adolescents with language backgrounds other than English (8%) than the Ag Program HS (54%) and City HS (31%) (ACARA, 2018).All three schools have a similar proportion of girls and boys attending (ACARA, 2018).
This study was conducted in accordance with ethical guidelines and was approved by the University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (2017000003) and the Queensland Department of Education and Training (550/27/1820).

Recruitment
Adolescents from each year level that represent the socio-economic, gender and cultural diversity of their school as a whole were identified by the high school and invited to participate in the photovoice.These individuals were given a hard copy consent form for signed parental permission (including for audio recording of the follow up interviews).A total of 32 adolescents (22 females and ten males, ranging from 12 to years in age) agreed to participate in the study; of whom ten were from the Rural HS, 12 from the Ag Program HS, and ten from the City HS.Adolescents were reassured that they would remain anonymous and be given the option to stop the interviews at any time and for any reason; however, none wished to do so.

Data collection
Photovoice consists of three overarching steps following participant recruitment.1. Participants are given an overview of the research and asked to take photographs that answer a specific research question/s.2. Participants are given a set time frame to take photos.3. On completion, they reconvene with the researcher to discuss and explain the photos that they have taken (Wang & Burris, 1997).A brief introduction and discussion on the photovoice process and relevant protocols (including ethics and sensitivity in public spaces) was held with all participants at each school, in either a meeting room or classroom (early August to September 2018).
The adolescents were asked to take photos with the disposable camera provided, that they felt best answered the topic "food in my life".The adolescents were given approximately two weeks to take as many photos as they liked, and some additional time to return the cameras to school (late August to October 2018).
Developed photos were sorted into "useable" and "unusable".The following criteria were used to decide which photos were "unusable": blank photographs; a copy of a previous photo (the best focused photo was selected as representative in the case of multiples); significantly out of focus (where the image could not be made out); and unidentifiable content.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face by the first author with each of the participants in their respective school grounds.Approximately 3-5 of their photos (selected for interesting content or when further clarifications were necessary) were shown to the adolescents to obtain their explanations of the photos and facilitate dialogue (early November to September 2018).Interview questions were modified from Heidelberger and Smith (2016).These included, but were not limited to: 1. What is this picture of?Tell me about this photograph?2. Tell me about what was happening when you took this picture?What were you thinking when you took this photograph?3. Why did you take this picture?4. How were you feeling when you took this photograph? 5.Where was this taken?6.How does this picture represent food in your life?
Towards the end of the interview each adolescent was given the opportunity to discuss another one or two photos of their choice, and then asked to select one photo from all the ones they had taken, that they believed encompassed the research question most effectively.Adolescents were also asked if they had any difficulties in photographing themes that they thought were relevant to the research question but could not be photographed.

Data analysis
The relative occurrence of key themes identified using the existing literature on foodscapes and from the photos taken by the students were quantified for each school and between gender.Photos were coded according to each of the themes visible in the photograph; meaning that each photo may have illustrated more than one theme, and therefore be counted multiple times for different themes.If the photo or content was unclear or it could not be ascertained with certainty that it demonstrated a particular theme, it was not included into the theme count.
The photovoice interviews were recorded and the researcher (first author) took notes of any additional relevant information (including interview environment, non-verbal behaviour, overall impressions and emerging patterns).The interviews were subsequently transcribed verbatim for analysis with the computer aided content analysis software called Leximancer (version 4.50;Leximancer Pty Ltd (2018); modifications can be found in Appendix A Table A).Leximancer is a text mining software that uses content analysis to quantitatively identify the presence of concepts from textual documents (Leximancer Pty Ltd, 2018).Based on the frequency of occurrence and co-occurrence in the text, terms extracted in Leximancer via iterative learning are weighted, and once the weight reaches a certain threshold, the terms are then defined as a "concept" using Bayesian theory.The concept is named automatically after the starting point for the concept (or concept seed word (Leximancer Pty Ltd, 2018;Smith & Humphreys, 2006)).For example, the word "food" was used in interviews frequently, whereby reaching the Leximancer threshold to become a concept named "food".
Leximancer does not name the concept based on potential meaning or context, but rather by the word most often used in association with that word from the interview transcripts.Leximancer provides an "insight dashboard" of quantitative results, including relationships among the concepts visually represented in a "concept map".
The "concept map" is a spatial representation of the co-occurrence of the concepts (shown as grey circles with their names in black print) within higher-level "themes" that are identified through a clustering algorithm (Leximancer Pty Ltd, 2018).Concepts that are located close together on the map represent concepts that are often found in the same pieces of text (meaning they have a strong semantic relationship).Typical pathways between the concepts are shown by grey lines (Leximancer Pty Ltd, 2018).Groups of concept clusters are labelled with an overarching theme (indicated by the coloured bubbles) and given the name of the largest concept within the cluster (Leximancer Pty Ltd, 2018; Smith & Humphreys, 2006).The overall relative frequency of concepts is indicated by the size of the circles (Leximancer Pty Ltd, 2018).Every time the clustering algorithm is run in Leximancer, the positioning of concepts on the two-dimensional concept map differs.Concepts that move extensively when re-clustering can indicate some ambivalence or ambiguity within the data.Therefore, the concept map was "re-clustered" at least ten times to ensure that the relative positioning of concepts stayed the same.To maximize the legibility of concept names and themes, the final concept map was slightly rotated and visible concepts set to 100% (i.e., all concepts names are included).
The interview transcripts from the discussions of the photographs were analysed in two steps.Firstly, all interviews were analysed using Leximancer together to ascertain overall themes and general characteristics of adolescent foodscapes.Secondly, the interviews were analysed by school to ascertain any differences in concepts and potential nuances between different foodscapes.These smaller sets of data also allowed for less frequent concepts, and any that were unique to particular schools, to emerge.A hybrid content analysis approach was taken which involved the sequential use of Leximancer and manual investigator-led interpretations.Hybrid approaches have been recommended (Baden et al., 2020;Lewis et al., 2013) to overcome the shortcomings of a singular approach, such as minimising researcher bias by using an objective algorithm for the content analysis (Smith & Humphreys, 2006).As Leximancer does not consider the meaning behind key concepts, keywords of interest were specifically explored through the search function in Leximancer to understand how these concepts were used in context.Keywords were identified through the Leximancer Analysis (i.e., high frequency concepts), as well as observational notes (e.g., terminology/vocabulary used) or behavioural idiosyncrasies (e.g., omissions) expressed during the interviews.These keywords included: cooking, health, fruit, garden, felt or feel.

Results
Students at the Rural HS took a total of 116 photos (of which 96 were "useable" under the criteria given in 2.3), the Ag Program HS students took 223 photos (of which 204 were included) and the City HS students took 159 photos (of which 136 were included).Across all three schools, the most common photos of the adolescents' foodscapes were taken inside (70%) and at home (68%), regardless of gender.It is noteworthy that there is a large difference in the occurrence of agricultural production in photos from the Rural HS (29 photos or 30% overall) compared to both the Ag Program HS (0%) and City HS (1%).More detail on the relative occurrence of photos for each theme across schools and gender can be seen in Appendix A Table B. The interviews with the students about their photos ranged from approximately eight to 36 min, with an average of 14 min each.

Leximancer Analysis of interviews
Initially all adolescent interview data was analysed together and K. Uhlmann et al. then a comparison between the schools was conducted.Direct quotes from interviews are presented with the participant's gender, age and school.

Adolescent foodscape: all schools
A map of the key concept words using the topical (linear) clustering algorithm in Leximancer is presented in Fig. 1.
3.1.1.1.Food.The "food" theme includes wording of the task and interview questions (such as "pick", "share", "take" and "felt/feel"), but also conveys concepts of adolescents trying to eat "healthy foods".Adolescents acknowledge the issue of food being a dynamic topic by discussing how they consume a variety of "different" foods as well as changing habits and routines ("use/d").One girl admitted she "used to do a lot more [cooking] than I do now, but not so much anymore" (F, 16, City HS).Another said "I used to not eat healthy, but then my sister started getting on the whole fitness track and health track and I was like, I'll see how I go" (F, 17, Ag Program HS).Furthermore, there was this discussion on change in personal preferences and needs: There's a lot of times where I go through a phase of maybe bringing one or two things to school to eat, because I really am not that hungry.Or I'd bring a whole lunchbox and like two lunchboxes full of food and eat only half of it, because there's definitely phases to eating habits.(F, 13, Rural HS) A pervading concept that was raised by the adolescents in relation to their foodscape was labelled "felt or feel".Broadly speaking this concept captures their emotional connection with food.It was mentioned times, which was only exceeded by the "food" concept, counted times.Some aspects of the "felt/feel" concept were simply in response to the overarching question, i.e., how they "felt or feel" when and why they took certain photographs.However, there were frequent examples that were about their relationship with food and how food can affect their feelings/emotions, such as: "it [food] makes me feel much better" (F, 17, Ag Program HS), or "when we grow them and they're really good we feel really proud" (F, 16, Rural HS), or "sometimes I get nachos when I feel like being a bit naughty" (F, 12, City HS).

School.
The consumption of school tuckshop/canteen, fastfood, take-away or take-out was also acknowledged to vary with time, depending on family schedules and routines.In Australia most schools have a tuckshop (also known as a canteen), where students who have not brought their own food from home, can typically purchase confectionery, sandwiches, warm meals (such as hot chips, burgers, pasta and rice dishes), finger-foods (such as sweets, crisps, popcorn) and drinks.It is of interest to note that "tuckshop" and "school" concepts co-occur by 15%, whereas "bring" and "home" co-occur by 21%, suggesting that adolescents more frequently discussed bringing lunch from home than buying tuckshop food at school.Varying food routines are further exemplified by this comment: "there was definitely no time in the afternoons to make dinner, just have everything prepared to be eaten, so that was a time when we used to spend a lot of money on McDonalds and fast food" (F, Fig. 1.A Leximancer concept map of the main concepts and themes emerging from the photovoice interviews discussing "food in my life" (all schools combined).The grey circles represent concepts labelled by Leximancer in black (with typical pathways between concepts shown by grey lines), and the theme labels are shown in capital letters in the colour of the respective theme bubble.
13, Rural HS).Within the concept of "use/ed", there is a notion of familiarity or comfort that was expressed by comments like "it's so hard because I've gotten so used to junk food" (F, 17, Ag Program).

Family.
Even though adolescents acknowledged that family interaction and routines vary with differing schedules or activities/ events (i.e., "sometimes it's just me and my brother that eat" M, 17, City HS), the "family" theme was a continuous and major focus of discussions."Family" consisted of concepts describing their family eating, buying and cooking routines at home (i.e., what they usually do, bring, have or eat).It also captures connection, with one adolescent commenting that "dinner and food is just such an open thing, and then it just kind of like forces everyone to talk to each other, which is good, and I like the bonding of the family through that" (F, 16, City HS).
The overlap between "school" and "family" themes seen in Fig. 1 includes the concepts "work" and "doing" that relate to adolescents frequently discussing their habit of doing schoolwork while eating at home or at school.The concept "week" is also seen in this overlap (Fig. 1) with the "school" theme capturing similar discussions on adolescent eating, purchasing and lunch routines with their friends at school.Adolescents' interpretation of "food in my life" has a large focus on their daily/weekly food routines and habits with their family at home and their friends at school.

Garden and fruit.
Leximancer created two outlier themes, "garden" and "fruit" (see Fig. 1).The concept "fruit" has more cooccurrences with the theme "school" than with "garden" and is therefore located closer to school on the concept map.This suggests that adolescents' associate fruit with items that they take and consume at school more than as being things that are grown or harvested.Adolescents overwhelmingly expressed a positive sentiment towards fruit by saying things like "I'm big on fruit … I love fruit" (F, 15, Rural HS).Adolescents shared that fruit forms part of their daily dietary intake with a common statement being "I usually have fruit in my lunch box" (M, 13, City HS).This was also supported by 24% of the photos taken by adolescents including pictures of fruit (see Appendix A Table B for all themes identified in the photos).
Adolescents understand that fruits are healthy but said that their foodscape usually includes equal or more amounts of unhealthy or discretionary items, as discussed here: "this shows that sometimes you have healthy and unhealthy things, like I have pasta and then I have fruit and yoghurt in it as well" (F, 12, Ag Program HS).One adolescent commented that she took a particular photo because it "shows that in my group most of my friends do have at least one fruit in their lunchbox" (F, 12, Ag Program HS) without mentioning the discretionary foods also seen in the photo.And another shared what a typical lunch looks like "a hot dog or anything in that sort of category, a little bit of fruit, maybe a hot dog or a sausage roll, something like that a little hot that will help and I'd maybe get a cupcake" (F, 13, Rural HS).This issue can be summarised by this notion of "healthy-ish diets", which utilises a term that was used by an adolescent when explaining that pancakes are a "healthy-ish breakfast" (M, 15, Ag Program HS).Adolescents expressed an element of uncertainty associated with calling foods healthy or unhealthy, for example "sometimes we'll make kind of healthy pizzas, kind of" (F, 16, City HS).Adolescents identified confusion from parents as well, while discussing chicken nuggets one adolescent commented "my mum thinks [it's unhealthy], my dad thinks it's healthy" (F, 14, City HS).
Adolescents shared a common notion of rewarding healthy eating with unhealthy foods both at school and at home.For example, "when I've been eating healthy a lot, I like to have a chocolate every now and then when I feel like I've eaten enough healthy stuff" (M, 13, City HS).Similarly, adolescents expressed their perception of needing a "balance", so "if you like say have hot chips in a day then you can't have like dessert later that night, just portion out your diet with junk food" (F, 12, Ag Program HS).This is a whole family approach, as is seen in this example: "because my dad works in Sydney, so we don't really need to go out and my mum usually cooks at home because she thinks thatwhen my dad comes over we usually go to restaurants all the time so she wants there to be balance" (F, 14, Ag Program HS).When discussing healthy food choices, one adolescent said this: She [mother] wants me to eat good food and not so much like dessert kind of food.Like she's really into like actually like healthy food.We have to have like two pieces of fruit a day, like a little portion sized snack, all that dessert kind of things for example I had a Kit Kat, and then we have like a sandwich or whatever and like a little snack like crackers or something.(F,12,Ag Program HS) Even though adolescents mentioned that they "are encouraged to eat healthy food and fruit and vegetables and stuff" (M, 13, City HS), as previously mentioned, they do not necessarily find that easy to do.Adolescents may have furthermore discussed healthy foods more than the discretionary foods due to parental pressures, as in this example: We have dinner out most Fridays.That's like the night where we'll have takeaway.But my parents didn't want me photographing it because they'd be like 'that's unhealthy'.We don't want you showing that because then she'll [the researcher] think you always eat takeout.I said no.But that's like a big thing because every Friday we have takeaway and that's like a routine thing.(F, 14, Ag Program HS).

Adolescent foodscapes: individual schools
To identify concepts that might be unique to each school, and not mentioned frequently enough to meet relative weighting thresholds in the all-schools analysis, interview data by each school was analysed in Leximancer separately.Concepts that were unique to the Rural HS were in relation to the agricultural production such as "farm", "garden", "vegetables", "meat" (see Table 1 for sample quotes that illustrate the range of contexts for each concept)."Bring" was another concept that

Table 1
Sample quotes for the unique concepts of the Rural HS.

Concept
Sample Quotes farm "I know it's made from an Aussie farm or like with these cows I know that they were innear my region" (M, 14) "We grew canola, barley, onions, potatoes, pumpkins and hay at our farm" (F, 12) "Usually I bring a couple of unhealthy things only on Monday and the rest of it is healthy things from the farm and everything, like carrots, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, everything like that" (F, 13) bring "I bring salads and things" (M, 16) "Because dad's a baker and he brings sometimes sweets home and things" (M, 16) "One day I could be lazy enough to bring just a box of Shapes, or the next day I could be really elaborate and have lots of sorts of things in my lunch" (F, 13) garden "We've got a few on big acreage and then we have a little garden in the corner" (F, 15) "We used to have the veggie garden out the back, and just the other gardens like plant gardens and stuff" (F, 13) "At their school they make foods and theymy sister she helps out with the veggie garden at school with the chappy [chaplain]" (M, 14) vegetables "Mum's always taught ussince we were little, she's always given us vegetables" (M, 16) "But aside from my parents, I'm mainly the one who cuts the vegetables and do that sort of thing" (F, 13) "But it's a really nice place we sell our food to and they have nice vegetables" (F, 12) meat "When we finish off packing all the meat we get new baby calves and we just got two new heifers" (F, 12) "Like the traditions are, where it's rice and just meat" (M, 14) "We breed them and then we cut the meat up and then we always give them a piece of meat" (F, 12) "We eat a lot of meat" (F, 15) K. Uhlmann et al. was unique to the Rural HS and generally was in relation to bringing food home, to school or from the garden/farms (refer to Table 1).
In addition to the main concepts, the Ag Program HS adolescents often discussed their connection or emotional experiences with eating foods and the social aspects of food (such as social norms, sharing of food and special traditions e.g., birthday celebrations).This can be seen in the concepts such as "enjoy", "people", "special" and "share" (see Table 2 for some sample quotes that illustrate the range of contexts for each concept).
The City HS adolescents expressed a particularly keen awareness of healthy and unhealthy foods ("healthy", "pizza", "chips") as week as food routines or changes thereof ("breakfast", "table", "different").Concepts that are unique to the City HS adolescents and sample quotes that illustrate the range of contexts for each concept shown in Table 3.
3.1.2.1.Food system terminology.Although the Leximancer analysis showed that Rural HS adolescents more frequently used food-related words to describe their foodscape than the students from the other two schools, the researcher noticed that it was not able to detect differences in the use of advanced agricultural, nutritional and cooking terminology between schools.For example, Rural HS adolescents exclusively used advanced food system terminology such as machinery, grading/cool rooms, harvest, irrigator, pipes, kill, hay, acres, sell, sprinkler, pollen, cross-pollinate, soil, paddock, pruning, and market.One adolescent from the Rural HS explained: I know where my food comes from.I know where it's been made.Like with this, I know it's made from an Aussie farm or like with these cows I know that they were innear my region.I know where there's nothing wrong with them.(M, 14, Rural HS) 3.1.2.2.Health.Across all schools the most common use of the word "health" was in relation to categorising foods (i.e., healthy versus unhealthy foods) however, it was also used by adolescents in other contexts.A keyword search for "health" in Leximancer showed that four different adolescents at the Ag Program HS used the word as a way of categorising food i.e., healthy or unhealthy foods, and two adolescents used the word to describe their personal attitudes (such as "I love health and fitness, that's who I like to be" or "health is such an important thing").At the City HS six adolescent individuals used the word "health" to categorise food (either healthy or unhealthy), with one adolescent also discussing the processing of foods "nowadays, fruits and all that, healthy stuff, they're adding stuff to make it look good" (F, 14, City HS).Interestingly, the following comment suggests that adolescents describe rewards but do not see healthy food as a reward or treat: "eating healthy, and then sometimes you have to treat yourself" (M, 13, City HS).Five separate adolescents at the Rural HS used the word health in relation to food choices with one adolescent also discussing the health variation of food processing methods (i.e., "because most of the stuff you buy that's pre-packeted already got gas and things in it … it's not as healthy as when you buy it fresh") and concerns about how it physically makes them feel (e.g., "I feel fat because I don't eat properly" or "I think of acne").It was not possible to ascertain what foods they considered to be "healthy" or "unhealthy", as the adolescents most often used these two terms as overarching generalisations rather than pertaining to specific food items.Two other common "health" contexts that were identified included food habits (e.g., encouragement by others, daily routines and having a "balanced" diet) and attitudes towards healthy foods.Some adolescents expressed pride and ownership of wanting to be healthy individuals, whereas others expressed a more defeatist view that teenagers just like junk foods and there is nothing that can be done.

Cooking.
It is important to note that the definitions of certain terms (such as cooking or health) were not explored from specific questions in the semi-structured interviews.However, the researcher (first author) observed that adolescents' descriptions of "cooking"

Table 2
Sample quotes for the unique concepts of the Ag Program HS.

Concept Sample Quotes
share "So we just all share our food and stuff" (F, 17) "Then they share with me as well" (F, 12) "When we get something like brownies from tuckshop, we share it and then we don't have all the unhealthy food" (F, 12) enjoy "Vitamins and stuff in it, so I really do enjoy that" (F, 13) "I'll sometimes go there and buy coffee, because I do really enjoy coffee" (F, 13) "Sometimes when we're with our mum, we'll have shepherd's pie or zucchini slice or something and sometimes we'll enjoy having it together" (F, 13) people "Because she always buys a lot because we have a lot of people in our family so she buys a lot, puts it in the freezer and then when we do want garlic bread, we bring it up and we have it" (F, 13) "I see most of the people that sit around us getting chocolate cake or brownie from the tuckshop so sometimes I want to get it as well" (F, 12) "I probably have a better attitude towards cooking and eating and eating with people that you love because it gets pretty lonely when you're by yourself" (M, 15) having "I like having it because you get a lot more nutrition, because you get to put on chicken, tomato, lettuce and there's a lot ofhow do you explain?" (F, 13) "So if there's any chance of me having a sweet I'm the first one there" (F, 16) "But my siblings like having takeaway" (F, 13) night "I mainly do have lasagne all the time and spaghetti, like we had last night, actually" (F, 13) "So I just eat anytime I'm hungry which is bad because most of the time I get hungry is like 1am at night" (F, 17) "The night before my mum like sets out the food and stuff and then in the morning we grab it out" (F, 12) special "It's like a special breakfast" (M, 15) "If we do, it's wholemeal bread and he has a special yeast free bread which tastes like cardboard" (F, 13) "My mum makes special food on our birthdays" (F, 12) ranged broadly from making a sandwich, placing pre-cooked foods (e.g., frozen pies or chips) in the oven, to using multiple ingredients and a variety of cooking methods.For example, one adolescent said that "my mum usually buys garlic bread from the [name of an Australian supermarket chain], cooks it up and we take it to school" (F, 13, Rural HS).A different adolescent mentioned that "we don't really buy [food]; we buy the ingredients, but we always do homemade cooking" (M, 14, Rural HS).Similarly, a spectrum of adolescents' cooking abilities and confidence was found, with some admitting "I barely know how to cook really" (M, 17, City HS), whereas others saying that "there's just a lot of home cooking in my life … and I know how to cook all of them" (F, 15, City HS), or that "I live by myself, so I do all my cooking" (M, 15, Ag Program HS).Their involvement in cooking varied between individuals: from no involvement, keeping their mother/father company in the kitchen, cutting up ingredients, stirring the food, to making the whole meal by themselves.

Best capture of "food in my life" photograph
Adolescents selected one photo they thought best captured the topic, "food in my life".In some cases, adolescents struggled to identify one picture, in which case the interviewer allowed them to select more than one.A collage of these photos for the Rural HS (Fig. 2), the Ag Program HS (Fig. 3) and the City HS (Fig. 4) illustrates the adolescent's selections.
Adolescents from the Rural HS (Fig. 2) selected photos of food production in their environments (be that at home or in their area), as well as photos depicting foods they eat on a regular basis or their favourite foods and rituals.Whereas adolescents from both the Ag Program HS and City HS (seen in Figs. 3 and 4) predominantly only selected photos of typical meals that they experienced.Out of the 36 photos selected, three showed school lunchboxes and one depicted food provided by the school as a reward for adolescent participation and performance.Nearly half (n = 17) of the photos portrayed cooked meals and traditions or routines associated with certain meals.This included cultural differences as well as social bonding within families and among friends.Overall adolescents overwhelmingly selected photos that showed meals that they were eating at a particular time rather than a broader perspective on food (except for food origins by some of the Rural HS adolescents).

Adolescent foodscapes
This study aimed to explore adolescent understanding and relationships with their current foodscape.Across all three schools, the combined Leximancer concept map highlighted that adolescent interpretation of "food in my life" primarily revolved around their daily/ weekly food routines, choices (either favourites or most frequent) and habitual experiences with their family at home, and their friends at school (regardless of gender).However, the adolescents acknowledged the transient nature of such occurrences due to varying life events, but nothing long term.For example, dinner routines were most frequently discussed as needing to change according to family commitments such as sporting activities, split household arrangements or work schedules.Similarly Gallegos et al. (2011) found that time constraints (due to work and sporting commitments) and absences of family members were the main reasons given by adolescents for not experiencing a family meal.Johansson et al. (2009) highlighted that place and time are important elements in defining the menu (Hartmann et al. (2013) labelling this as the chronic feeling of time scarcity).
In interviews, adolescents most frequently discussed food and emotive words such as "felt" or "feel" within the same context which suggests that there is more to food than just subsistence (also found by Carolan (2015) and Morgan (2010)).Both positive and negative emotive language was used to capture their foodscape including "love", "makes Fig. 2. Photos selected that best represented "food in my life" for adolescents at the Rural HS (F is for female; M for male; the number represents their age; and any explanatory comments that were made in relation to the photo).Please note that one adolescent's photo is missing.me feel better", "felt like it", "proud", "feel fat" to name a few.The adolescents were acutely aware that foods can influence their moods and health (specifically their weight and physical fitness), also found by Giskes et al. (2005).Key themes discussed by the adolescents broadly included the healthiness of, interactions with, and mis/information about their foodscapes.

Un/healthy foodscape and diets
Many of the adolescents focused on the un/healthiness of their foodscape.The adolescents demonstrated an astute awareness of a dichotomy of healthy/good and unhealthy/bad foods in relation to ingredients, ways of eating (e.g., eating take-away) and different types of foods.Across all of the schools, half of the adolescents (similar proportions at each school) used "healthy" to describe their foodscape, or some component thereof.Youths speaking to Gangemi et al. (2018) also raised concerns unsolicited about the healthfulness of their food environment.Johansson et al. (2009) commented that "even if research constantly provides us with new -often contradictory-discoveries, there are some common agreements on what is healthy and unhealthy" (p.37).This observation was made over ten years ago, and it appears that adolescents (as well as some parents, which was also found by Pulker et al. (2019) and Fleming et al. (2020Fleming et al. ( , p. 2019)) in Australia are increasingly confused.In this study, adolescents were not specifically asked what their definition was of "healthy", but they demonstrated a level of misinformation when calling pancakes "healthy-ish" and pizza as being "kind of healthy".Referring to foods as "healthy-ish" may suggest that the healthiness of foods is seen as a continuum rather than a dichotomy (Johansson et al., 2009).This confusion or uncertainty could be a challenge for adolescents in identifying where foods fit in the perceived versus actual continuum, as is possessing the relevant literacy to substantiate such a positioning.This is particularly problematic when recognising personal food values and preferences in making food choices (Johansson et al., 2009).
Fruit was seen favourably among adolescents and as something they consume daily (24% of the photos included fruits).In their interviews, the adolescents wanted to highlight the presence of one fruit in their lunchbox, however appeared oblivious to the discretionary items within the same lunchbox.It is unclear whether the adolescents knew what the recommended serves according to the Australian Dietary Guidelines (Department of Health, 2003) are, as this was not discussed in any of the interviews.The adolescents seemed unaware however that one piece of fruit per day does not constitute a healthy diet, nor that the consumption of fruit has a net neutral effect on their bodies when they consume discretionary foods subsequently.It appeared that the most common perception of a "balanced" diet was one healthy food item equalling one unhealthy food item.The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne (2017) found that more than half of parents also believe that there is no problem with their child/ren having a daily treat so long as it is balanced with healthy food as well.Adolescents indicated that instantly rewarding healthy eating with a treat or unhealthy food is normal for them (both at school and at home).Ironically this is a message entailed in the Smart Choices Strategy (Queensland Health and Education, 2016) for school canteens, in which amber food items can be elevated into the green category when they are combined with other green foods e.g., salad or vegetables.McCafferty et al. (2019) compellingly argue that the word "treat" has a paradoxical contemporary definition, as these pleasurable energy-dense foods are to be consumed infrequently, are rare and justified; but in reality, treats are consumed and given to children so regularly, that by definition, it should be downgraded from a "real treat" to a "regular treat" (a similar sentiment is shared by the Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence ( 2017)).
This reward behaviour has also been observed in historical research on eating out, where families, in stark contrast to modern times, would reward themselves to a meal away from home on the rare occasion, Fig. 3. Photos selected that best represented "food in my life" for adolescents at the Ag Program HS (F is for female; M for male; the number represents their age; and any explanatory comments that were made in relation to the photo).Please note that two adolescents did not answer this question or did not have enough photos to select a representative photo.thereby justifying the consumption of a treat or something unhealthy (Paddock et al., 2017).Allman-Farinelli et al. (2019) found that for many young people (aged 18-30) eating out is accepted as a normal occurrence but is still viewed as a special occasion for which healthy food is not a priority (even for those who understood the health consequences of poor food choices).This suggests that health prevention messages need to be more precise (avoiding language such as "sometimes" foods for example) and need to address the relationships individuals have with foods seen as treats.These relationships may be as a result of "the combination of the abundant and accessible nature of energy dense foods in the food environment, and the positive emotional response associated with treat foods, reinforcing the habitual use of treats in today's society" (McCafferty et al., 2019, p. 121).

Discretionary foods
Most financial aspects raised by adolescents related to the transactional nature of purchasing food, with the cost of discretionary items when eating out (reinforcing the previously discussed concept of a treat), household/family budgeting priorities and value for money being raised most often.Studies have shown that between 53 and 64% of an Australian family food budget is spent on discretionary items (Lee et al., 2016).This was apparent in this research study from the high number of photos taken of discretionary foods (43% of all photos) and many adolescents discussing the presence and consumption of discretionary foods in the interviews.Although these health specific findings are largely not new knowledge, they provide further evidence for government bodies to strengthen current guidelines and policies as well as enforce stricter monitoring.
Adolescents suggested that their consumption of discretionary foods increased due to limitations (real or perceived) such as: time (their parents' or their own), capacity (e.g., having only one parent), money, or scheduling (sports or other activities for each of the family members).This aligns with other research (Adamo & Brett, 2014;Connors et al., 2001;Furst et al., 1996;Gangemi et al., 2018;George & McDuffie, 2007;Giskes et al., 2005;Hill, 2002;Lautenschlager & Smith, 2007;Pearce et al., 2009;Stevenson et al., 2007;Watts et al., 2015) but our findings further highlight the emotional aspect of food, with adolescents expressing that the quality of their diets is shaped by stress, life circumstances and emotions (frequently discussing food as an emotional reward or treat; also found by Howse et al. (2018)).
The presence of discretionary foods in the foodscape, and the consumption thereof, have become the daily norm particularly for urban Australian adolescents.In addition to increasing junk food "swamps" (areas of high concentrations of unhealthy, relative to healthier food availability (Cooksey-Stowers et al., 2017)), adolescents are finding it ever more difficult to ascertain the healthiness of foods within their foodscapes.Is this a direct outcome of the poor quality hyper-palatable addictive processed foods or "edible foodlike substances" (Parkinson et al., 2017;Pollan, 2008;WHO, 2015)?Low levels of food literacy (including both knowledge of, and skills to, engage with the whole food system) reduces the consumer's chance of choosing between self-prepared and "processed" foods and makes them dependant on the information provided by the food industry (Hartmann et al., 2013).

Food system
Adolescents from the Rural HS took 94% of all their photos involving food production activities at home or within the community.They were also the only ones to include such a photo to represent their overall foodscape (40% of Rural HS adolescents).Furthermore, only the Rural HS adolescents used agriculture specific terminology (e.g., "machinery", "grading/cool rooms", "harvest", "irrigator", "pipes", "hay", "acres", "cross-pollinate", "pruning") and verbalised an understanding of where Fig. 4. Photos selected that best represented "food in my life" for adolescents at the City HS (F is for female; M for male; the number represents their age; and any explanatory comments that were made in relation to the photo).Please note that one adolescent's photo is missing.
food comes from (using words like "soil", "paddock" and "kill" to describe where meat comes from) and how it is distributed (e.g., "sell" and "market").This suggests that adolescents from the Rural HS incorporate agricultural language in their everyday communication.Given that Ag Program HS adolescents did not express themselves using similar vocabulary, it can be inferred that the Rural HS adolescents are learning this either at home or within their broader community, not at school.It should be noted that there is a real possibility that urban populations do not use the same vocabulary in order to avoid certain conversations on food production (for example the "slaughtering" of animals for meat production) as they may make them feel uncomfortable or they think they lack necessary knowledge to be able to talk about it (Bray et al., 2016).
It is important to highlight that interview transcripts do not account for the intonations of the language used by adolescents, nor the body language, so the text cannot convey the sense of pride that Rural HS adolescents shared in relation to their own families or communities growing food.Baldwin et al. (2017), among others, have documented the strong connection rural communities have with the land that feeds them and others.This research adds to current theories and concerns around urbanisation affecting broader socio-ecological disconnections.

Influential settings and connections within adolescent foodscapes
The study's findings support the growing literature on the importance of family and home environments on food choices during adolescence (Larson et al., 2006;Parks et al., 2018;Uhlmann et al., 2022;Utter et al., 2016).Across all schools, more photos were taken inside, at home, and showed active home cooking or a home-cooked meal rather than lunch boxes at school.Adolescents in this study frequently expressed undertaking activities such as food purchasing, handling, cooking and routines with their families.But most importantly, the role of the home encapsulated the emotional connection adolescents had with their foodscape.
As many Australian families have parents in full-time employment outside of the home, it was surprising that one of the findings was that adolescents still most frequently associated food in their lives with their mothers.This is increasingly being explored in recent research on gendered roles within family households, specifically with respect to food production, food security concerns and cooking (Hartmann et al., 2013;Lavelle et al., 2016;Tibesigwa & Visser, 2016;Tipper, 2010;Vidgen & Gallegos, 2014).
Women are the backbone of the significant advances we are making in the re-envisioning of food systems at every scale: local, regional, national and international.I don't think that is a coincidence.When it comes to nature, nurture, and nutrition, women have been the nucleus of so many of the most progressive initiatives.(Ackerman--Leist, 2013, p. 121, p. 121) Mothers play a crucial role in the practical (managing household food security), psychological (role modelling and through relationships) and even genetic transferral of healthy food habits to children and adolescents (with Juonala et al. (2020) and Kong et al. (2018) finding that mothers contribute more to nutrition and health related genetic traits).Preparation of food is strongly linked with a care-giver identity (Vidgen & Gallegos, 2014) and is not purely for catering purposes, but can be seen as a labour of love and commitment to the family (Hill, 2002).Lavelle et al. (2016) found that mothers are still the primary source of children's learning of cooking skills but raised the concern that there is a culinary deskilling of parents and decline in intergenerational transmission of these (also found by Ronto et al. (2016) and Hartmann et al. (2013)).
Adolescence is often labelled as a period where families are assumed to play a less important role than during childhood (Moreno et al., 2005;Sloan et al., 2008), however data from this study suggests the contrary and reinforces the important role that parents play (Fleming et al., 2020(Fleming et al., , p. 2019;;Hartley et al., 2011;Hill, 2002;Lautenschlager & Smith, 2007;Ronto et al., 2016;Stevenson et al., 2007;Story & Resnick, 1986).It is of paramount importance that parents do not disengage in relation to food during the adolescent phase and are invited as key collaborators for any preventative adolescent health intervention.
In their photos, the adolescents frequently depicted cooked meals which included meaningful cultural and other family traditions associated with these meals.This is not surprising, given that individuals often prefer to consume foods associated symbolically with their own culture, place and past; and it reinforces their sense of belonging through discussions about heritage, nation building and tradition (Brimblecombe et al., 2014;Cantarero et al., 2013;Giovine & Brulotte, 2014;Wilk, 1999)."Eating and food are strongly embedded in history, identity, community, place and culture, so will always involve interactions between the social and natural world" (Uhlmann et al., 2018, p. 5).A challenge for research is that studies are limited to a seemingly stable part of one's cultural identity, when in reality, cuisines and diets are constantly transforming, resulting in potentially fluid and changeable cultural identity (Wilk, 1999).Although this study did not specifically explore cultural identities, it does support the important role that culture plays in adolescent foodscapes.Furthermore, it may indicate alignment with a multi-national study which concluded that geographical location can be less important than common cultural values in determining food choice (Prescott et al., 2002), however further targeted research is needed to confirm this.

Strengths and limitations
A universal limitation of working with human beings is the challenge in ascertaining subconscious values and decision-making processes of the participants.This could include social norms and expectations that could have contributed to their photo selections (specifically if they felt pressured to select only one image) and when sharing experiences with the interviewer.As one adolescent highlighted, parents asked their child only to take "acceptable" photos, suggesting pressure on their child.The study however did not explore adolescent's perceptions of any direct pressure parents (or others) may provide.
Limitations of this methodology include the limits to what is observable (Castleden et al., 2008).Photographing non-tangible issues can be a significant challenge to participants, and results can be biased by scenes and topics not having been photographed by participants and therefore potentially not discussed in interviews (Castleden et al., 2008).Adolescents mentioned difficulty in capturing the inherent emotional elements of food on photos, including: social connections with place/people, sense of control, making a statement with food, impacts on emotion states (i.e., moods), and the pride associated with making or growing their own foods.Other challenges were inherent to the logistics and timing of the study, such as: forgetting the camera, the variability/seasonality of food (e.g.certain items not being in season), cooking (including different methods of cooking), food shopping, traditional foods and special occasions/events (such as parties or Christmas).A strength of the photovoice methodology used here is that adolescents were especially asked about any limitations encountered, so these topics were explored in the interviews.However, infrequent difficulties like adolescents forgetting/losing their camera and poor photo quality (possibly due to their lack of experience with disposable cameras) were harder to counteract and are therefore inherent limitations of this method.
Two photos were taken on incentives and marketing including supermarket offers (e.g., two-for-one deals, discounted price tags etc.) and giveaway collectables promotions (enticing people to spend more).However, no photos were taken of any food or drink advertising in public places (i.e., billboards or shop fronts) or on entertainment platforms (i.e., television, social media, magazines or internet).This could suggest that adolescents may be de-sensitised to the bombardment of marketing strategies or completely oblivious to the food marketing around them.A study in the U.S. found that adolescents reported being K. Uhlmann et al. exposed to approximately 4.4 fast food advertisements every day (Dembek et al., 2012), but reported significantly lower frequencies of advertising exposure than their caregivers (Kumar et al., 2014).This is important to understand in more detail, given that television and advergame (using videogames to promote a product) food advertising can provoke food cues that result in increased dietary intake among children (Clary et al., 2017;Russell et al., 2019).Noting the increased international calls for government policy interventions that protect children from the harmful impacts of food marketing (WHO & UNICEF, 2023), it is critical to use a child rights perspective, as well as actively engage with adolescents to understand their lived foodscape experiences to ensure maximum policy impact and minimize potential unintended consequences.
These challenges highlight that although photovoice is a suitable method in capturing conscious, lived and felt experiences, it may not adequately capture subconscious habits, choices or exposures for adolescents (as the saying goes "you don't know what you don't know").Nevertheless, these omissions do provide interesting insights into adolescent perspectives, priorities and potential opportunities for improving food literacy.Similarly, it became apparent in the interviews that the term "cooking" is being used loosely by the adolescents, with definitions ranging from making a sandwich, placing pre-cooked foods (e.g., frozen pies or chips) into the oven, to using multiple ingredients and a variety of cooking methods.Therefore, some commonly used terminology (e.g., "cooking") has potential underlying individual, social, cultural, economic and generational variations that need to be better understood and clarified to identify potential health implications.
Previous studies have asserted that foodscape assessments are contextual by design (Hartley et al., 2011;Longacre et al., 2011).Given the contextual nature of this research study, an important limitation is the inability to generalise the results more broadly with only one school having been studied for each foodscape.Furthermore, on an international level, these findings are best compared with similarly developed western cultures with comparable food, political and schooling systems to Australia's.The findings may be particularly contextual; however, they have provided an in-depth understanding that can be used as a foundation for future research.

Conclusion
This study has shown that key themes relating to adolescent foodscapes include food routines, the emotional relationship with food, the importance of their home food environment (in particular mothers), and the food directly in front of them.Most adolescent foodscape interpretations revolved around foods they regularly consumed or their favourite foods as directly in front of them.This supports the view that to most adolescents the future seems too abstract and distant to concern themselves with long-term effects of what they are currently eating (UNICEF, 2019).As health issues relating to food are rather abstract and not necessarily embedded into daily lives of adolescents, these findings pose potential challenges for health intervention strategies (Hargreaves et al., 2022;Mikkelsen, 2011;Moore Heslin & McNulty, 2023).This includes finding solutions that reflect the contexts in which adolescents live, and that do not simply focus on changing immediate adolescent behaviours, but rather prioritize creating health enabling foodscapes such as policies that restrict availability of low nutrition foods (e.g., sugar sweetened beverage taxes, Flynn (2023)).Another area of intervention focus should include home food environments and families, as they have been identified by this research as being key contributors to the development of healthy eating behaviours among adolescents.The findings do highlight the complicated nature of the food environment for adolescents and support the need for multiple strategies that can contribute to healthy food consumption.
When addressing individual motivations for behaviour change, our findings suggest there is a need to capture the emotional response that food evokes in adolescents (influencing their overall sense of wellbeing).
Food is not just about sustenance, so people creating new strategies need to consider emphasising the pleasure gained from consuming healthy foods by increasing positive experiences and emotions adolescents attribute with healthy foods.Innovative efforts that seek to address positive emotions from adolescents such as, socially-bonding, aspirational, fun, culturally inclusive, memorable and engaging efforts may need to be developed.Furthermore, there is a need to incorporate the learnings from other individual health behaviour change studies, such as what works in reducing alcohol consumption or increasing physical activity in adolescents, to undertake future research that allows for comparisons to be made.
Discretionary food items are now a daily and normal part of the adolescent foodscape.As a consequence, strategies to help adolescents make healthier choices, or making it the easy/convenient choice, will necessitate the combination of both private (school, home, businesses, etc.) and government (local, state and federal) interdisciplinary collaborations.Findings from this study support the following recommendations (Hargreaves et al., 2022;Moore Heslin & McNulty, 2023;Neufeld et al., 2022;Temple, 2023): clearer guidelines and campaigns to counteract nutritional confusion and misinformation; decreasing accessibility of unhealthy foods at schools in conjunction with greater support for canteen convenors; restricting approvals for unhealthy food outlets surrounding schools to combat obesogenic environments; stricter regulation on marketing of unhealthy drinks/foods; and labelling foods in a manner that all ages can make informed decisions.
This research study strengthens concerns raised in the literature on adolescent health trends and draws attention to the need for public health interventions that incorporate the broader community and address emotional connections with food.It is crucial that preventative health strategies developed carefully consider the emotional and social experiences of adolescents in relation to food (supported by Neufeld et al. (2022)).Promoting positive experiences, with the intent of building positive emotions towards healthier habits and routines, should be a priority rather than focusing only on traditional health outcome measures.International healthy food advocacy campaigns (e.g., Bite Back 2030, United Nation's Food Systems Summit Dialogues, Youth Food Movement) have demonstrated mature levels of awareness and motivation by young people to be active partners in driving child-centered food systems change for future generations (Fleming et al., 2021;Hargreaves et al., 2022;Hawkes et al., 2020;Neufeld et al., 2022), which should be further encouraged in Australia.

Table 3
Sample quotes for the unique concepts of the City HS.
"My dad often eats in front of the TV and we all sit at the table" (M, 15) "That's the food that we usually eat when we're sitting at the table as a family" (F, 12) different "Everyone's different" (F, 16) "I've done a few different smoothies, like mixed berries" (F, 16) "We eat lots of different cultures" (M, 12)."Food is different when mum's not here" (F, 12)K.Uhlmann et al.
Adolescents were generally optimistic and expressed positive attitudes towards cooking such as "I like cooking because you can just make new things and most of the time, they taste good" (F, 13, Ag Program HS) or "I know what I'm putting in my food … so, it makes me feel in control of what I'm doing"(F, 17, Ag Program  HS).By contrast, this individual argued that "nowadays kids don't know how to cook … because they just want to go buy stuff and they don't really cook" (F, 14, City HS) implying the popularity of convenience.