Children’s Food and Drink Purchasing Behaviour “Beyond the School Gate”: The Development of a Survey Module

Table 1

Questions included in the FPM.

Questions included	CAPI (primary school child aged 8–11 y^a)	CAPI (secondary school child aged 11^a–16 y)	SCQ (secondary school child aged 11^a–16 y)
How the child travels to/from school	✓	✓
Where the child eats, if at all, before school	✓	✓
What places that sell food or drink the child walks or cycles past on way to/from school (opportunities to purchase)	✓	✓
Who the child is with when walking or cycling to/from school	✓	✓
Does the child purchase food or drinks on way to/from school	✓	✓
Why the child never purchases food or drinks on the way to/from school	✓	✓
Why the child purchases food or drinks on the way to/from school	✓		✓
Where the child buys food on way to/from school	✓	✓
Frequency of purchasing certain food and drinks on way to/from school^a	✓		✓
Parental influence^b on purchasing decisions on way to/from school, during break time/free periods, and at lunch time			✓
Places that the child can get to that sell food or drinks during free periods and lunch time		✓
School rules about leaving school grounds during break times/free periods and at lunch time		✓
Frequency of purchasing lunch provided by the school	✓		✓
Whether the child has a free school meal^c	✓		✓
How long the child gets for lunch on a school day (in minutes)		✓
How the child decides what to do at lunchtime		✓
Whether the child purchases food or drinks during break time/free periods or at lunch time			✓
Reasons the child never buys food or drinks outside school during break time/free periods or at lunch time			✓
Reasons why the child leaves school grounds to purchase food or drinks during break time/free periods or at lunch time			✓
Where the child usually buys food or drinks outside school during break time/free periods or at lunch time			✓
Where the child most often buys food or drinks at lunch time outside of school and reasons why he shops there			✓
Frequency of purchasing certain food and drinks^b during break time/free periods or at lunch time			✓

^aThe age bands overlap as some children aged 11 years are still at primary school and some have started secondary school.
^bThe foods and drinks children were asked about were based on those included in the Food Frequency Questionnaire in the main dietary survey, supplemented with foods thought that might be purchased by children, like sandwiches. The list of food and drinks from the FPM can be found in the Appendix.
^cQuestions included whether the child tells their parent/guardian what food or drinks they buy and whether parents tell child what to buy/what not to buy on way to/from school, during break time/free periods, or at lunchtime.
^dChildren in the UK whose parents are on a low income are eligible for a free meal in school at lunchtime.