Healthy Food in Spanish Urban Adolescents from a Qualitative Perspective

Cities are unhealthy environments that determine our diet. Young urban adolescents have a poorer quality diet than adults or older people (Anderson et al., 2011). This vulnerability increases as we descend in social class (Stephens et al., 2015). These inequalities are observed from educational centres, schools and high schools, which become food environments during the time that adolescents are there ((Díez et al., 2019; Kenstens and Daniel, 2010).

The objective of this work is to understand the perception of teachers and educational centres about the lifestyle of adolescents associated with food habits in two Spanish cities (Madrid and Bilbao). In addition, we compare social discourses between educational centres according to the socioeconomic level of the neighbourhood where they are located.

This work is based on the results obtained in 24 focus groups carried out with teachers from public and private schools in Madrid and Bilbao, selected based on the socioeconomic level of the neighbourhood. The 24 centres gather together students between 13 and 16 years old who are studying Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) and, between 16 and 18 years old, who are studying Bachelor´s Degree in Madrid and Bilbao. The fieldwork was carried out between November 2022 and April 2023.

The results show that the teachers' speeches, who observe unhealthy food habits of adolescents, do not differ by social class. In addition, teachers point to families as responsible for this, accusing them of not exercising control over their children's food habits due to intense working day. Therefore, teachers and educational canters say they are the ones who assume this control and are committed to teaching healthy eating.