A retrospective examination of theory use in nutrition education

The purpose of this study was to examine the literature in nutrition education research in order to identify changes in the frequency of theory- or model-driven research in the past ten years, as well as to identify the specific theories and models that authors have used. All papers in the Journal of Nutrition Education and abstracts in Dissertation Abstracts that reported any data collection during the years 1980-1990 (n = 346) were read and coded into categories of theory/model use or no use. Studies that utilized theory and/or models were further divided into five subcategories using Gowin's educative commonplaces. These subcategories included teacher, learner, curriculum, governance, and other. Results indicate that three-fourths of the studies do not explicitly use a theory or model to select variables or methods or to interpret the results. This proportion has stayed constant over the decade, even with an increase in the number of studies reported. Most of the theories used are drawn from the psychological literature. Alternative theories are presented. The need for a set of theories is emphasized to better address the issues pertinent to nutrition education research.