“It’s where I buy lunch or anything that I want to buy”: A participatory photo elicitation study on adolescents’ experience of food choice and environment in Kisumu, Kenya
1
Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
2
Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, The Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
3
Department of Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock, Fisheries, and Blue Economy, County Government of Kisumu, Kisumu, Kenya
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):A2170
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
In Kenya, adolescents face a changing nutritional landscape, the triple burden of nutrition, and a rising risk of non-communicable diseases.1–3 Behaviors that begin in adolescence can influence lifelong dietary patterns and future disease risk.4,5 There is limited understanding of contextually grounded, adolescent-centered experiences of food choice in the African Region.6–8 Thus, this study aims to explore how young adolescents attending school in an informal settlement in Kisumu, Kenya, experience and visualize their local food environment.
METHODS:
This participatory research study employs a photo elicitation and social foodscape mapping method with 18 adolescents (aged 12-13) in an informal settlement in Kisumu.9,10 The adolescents took photos of their food environment and met with the researchers to discuss their photos and draw maps of their food environment. We used Drew & Guillemin’s three-stage approach with an abductive thematic analysis.11
RESULTS:
The analysis generated three themes: 1) food choices are shaped by convenience and familiarity, yet the adolescents express an interest in items beyond the familiar, 2) adolescents mostly receive food from adults but are beginning to make some independent choices, and 3) adolescents value the social dimensions of food, yet they navigate forms of belonging across family and peer contexts. Overall, adult routines and provisions remain central, but adolescents value moments of autonomy and express curiosity for more processed and peer-valued foods.
CONCLUSIONS:
First, adolescents are at an early transition point in shaping lifelong dietary habits with emerging moments of autonomy. Second, promoting healthy diets during adolescence should include strategies that build autonomy by equipping adolescents with skills to negotiate food choices within their socio-economic contexts. Third, creating food environments for adolescents should leverage trusted and familiar food sources and engage guardians and schools without compromising adolescents’ emerging autonomy.
In Kenya, adolescents face a changing nutritional landscape, the triple burden of nutrition, and a rising risk of non-communicable diseases.1–3 Behaviors that begin in adolescence can influence lifelong dietary patterns and future disease risk.4,5 There is limited understanding of contextually grounded, adolescent-centered experiences of food choice in the African Region.6–8 Thus, this study aims to explore how young adolescents attending school in an informal settlement in Kisumu, Kenya, experience and visualize their local food environment.
METHODS:
This participatory research study employs a photo elicitation and social foodscape mapping method with 18 adolescents (aged 12-13) in an informal settlement in Kisumu.9,10 The adolescents took photos of their food environment and met with the researchers to discuss their photos and draw maps of their food environment. We used Drew & Guillemin’s three-stage approach with an abductive thematic analysis.11
RESULTS:
The analysis generated three themes: 1) food choices are shaped by convenience and familiarity, yet the adolescents express an interest in items beyond the familiar, 2) adolescents mostly receive food from adults but are beginning to make some independent choices, and 3) adolescents value the social dimensions of food, yet they navigate forms of belonging across family and peer contexts. Overall, adult routines and provisions remain central, but adolescents value moments of autonomy and express curiosity for more processed and peer-valued foods.
CONCLUSIONS:
First, adolescents are at an early transition point in shaping lifelong dietary habits with emerging moments of autonomy. Second, promoting healthy diets during adolescence should include strategies that build autonomy by equipping adolescents with skills to negotiate food choices within their socio-economic contexts. Third, creating food environments for adolescents should leverage trusted and familiar food sources and engage guardians and schools without compromising adolescents’ emerging autonomy.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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