Lost in Transition?

Student food consumption

Author(s): Bodil Stilling Blichfeldt and Malene Gram
Source: Higher Education , March 2013, Vol. 65, No. 3 (March 2013), pp. 277-289
Published by: Springer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23351697

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High Educ (2013) 65:277-289
DOI 10.1007/s 10734-012-9543-2

Lost in Transition? Student food consumption

Bodil Stilling Blichfeldt • Malene Gram

Published online: 6 June 2012

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Abstract Findings from transition studies as well as studies of student food show that the
transition from living at home to independent living influences student food consumption
and that food consumption might be problematic during this period. Furthermore, both
students' enactment of being in transition and the food habits and practices they bring with
them from home may differ profoundly. Drawing on qualitative interviews and focus
groups with 55 students, the paper explores student food consumption during this transi
tion. Whereas some students come across as novices, virtually starting from scratch,
several others are well-versed in the domain of cooking. Furthermore, in the present study,
the students are not starting out their cooking careers in a vacuum, but entangled in their
parental food practices. The students, who experience the least problems in regard to
'habitualisation' of 'proper' food consumption are those, who are experienced cooks from
home. Nonetheless, the students do not automatically extend the practices and habits, with
which they were brought up, unchanged, but instead, actively develop new habits, often
with a clear feeling of being in transit. Transition is thus not an objective fact, but instead
the individual student's enactment and perception of his/her life and changes herein make
formation of habits and practices meaningful. However, the extent to which students
successfully take on the role as self-catering depends on both the student's competencies
and skills acquired prior to independent living, living situation and, most importantly, the
student's ability to habitualise grocery shopping and cooking.

Keywords Transition • Student food • Denmark • Qualitative research • Habitualisation

Introduction

It is important to understand the anxieties of freshman students as their abilities and

confidence in their new role are decisive for them during this key transition to higher
education (Gibney et al. 2012). Food is one important aspect of student wellbeing, but still

B. S. Blichfeldt (E3) • M. Gram

Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Kroghstraede 1,
9220 Aalborg East, Denmark
e-mail: blichfeldt@cgs.aau.dk

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278 High Educ (2013) 65:277-289

relatively little is written about student food even though a rumbling stomach is no doubt
not optimal when trying to perform well in higher education. When reading the sparse
literature on student food one could get the impression that young people are floating
around with no anchor points, starting from scratch and seeking to build food practices
(e.g., Xi and Shuai 2009; Chapman and McClean 1993), with next to no cooking skills (as
discussed by Beasly et al. 2004). Also literature tends to equal student food with 'bad' food
(e.g., Xi and Shuai 2009; Dinger 1999). Some studies (e.g., Vella-Zarb and Edgar 2010)
conclude that there is a degradation in the food young people eat when they start to study,
often followed by weight gain. However, few studies actually give voice to students who
are mostly presented as one homogenous group (e.g., Xi and Shuai 2009) or only seg
mented by gender (Franciscy et al. 2004; Hertzler and Bruce 2002). Some studies measure
intake of specific types of food and find differences related to, for instance, the educational
level of mothers (e.g., Post-Skagegárd et al. 2002). But is this the whole story about student
food? This paper seeks to nuance the understanding of this domain through a qualitative
explorative study of students' experiences with food in the transition phase from being
cared for at home to taking care of their own food provision. It explores perceptions of
food and cooking in the transitional phase among students who need to establish, for many,
new food practices.

Theoretical background

According to Holstein and Gubrium (2007), studies on change during the life course (e.g.,
when starting to study at university) often center on transition. Basically, transition refers to
passage from one state to another and thus, passage or change precedes transition. However,
transition and change are not synonyms as transition only occurs insofar the individual
perceives, or enacts, change and seeks to deal with this (Bridges 2004; Selder 1989).
Acknowledging that a prior way of living has ended and attempting to construct a new way
of living thus become antecedents of transition. Kralik et al. (2006, p. 321) define transition
as "a process of convoluted passage during which people redefine their sense of self and
redevelop self-agency in response to disruptive life events" and thus, (re)defining and
(re)constructing self becomes critical to this process. Accordingly, if young people's leaving
home qualifies as a transition between adolescence and adulthood, then this change may lead
to elaborate processes of self-redefinition and re-construction of self.Although life transi
tions are often seen as having distinct beginnings and ends, they depend on the individual's
enactment hereof and may hence more accurately be seen as periods of (re)construction of
self and changing of practices that individuals construct (Cahill 1986; Thorne 1993).
Thompson et al. (2002, p. 335) argue that: "The transition from youth to adulthood is
increasingly non-linear and heterogeneous". Accordingly, not only is the transition from
youth to adulthood dependent on the individual's enactment hereof, but it also differs when
and how young people engage in such transition. Discussing this issue, Holstein and
Gubrium (2007, p. 1) argue in favour of adopting more constructionist approaches:

The constructionist perspective differs from the more objectivist approach in that it
does not take a meaningful life cycle or set of life stages for granted, but instead
examines how meanings are constructed in relation to the notion of a life course.

It is thus not characteristics such as age that are decisive for the meanings of transition
people construct, instead it is the individual's enactment of his/her life and change that
make formation of habits and practices meaningful. As a result, transition informs practices

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High Educ (2013) 65:277-289 279

as it makes the individual question who I 'am', seek new roles and responsibilities, and
construct new identities (Banister 1999; Cahill 1986; Kralik et al. 2006; Miller 2000;
Reckwitz 2002; Young et al. 2002). A 'successful' transition is typically described as one,
during which feelings of distress are replaced by mastery (Schumacher and Meleis 1994).
Therefore, the supposedly unpleasant distress that is the first reaction to change is
substituted by the individual's becoming increasingly confident in the roles and practices
that define his/her 'new self. Two key deficits of the literature on transition are that it does
not deal much with how the individual actually develops 'mastery' and how, more
precisely, the individual develops new practices. Berger and Luckmann (1966) argued that
all human activity is subject to 'habitualization' and that any action which is repeated
frequently (such as preparing dinner) is cast into a pattern. Accordingly, habitualization
frees the individual from having to make 'all those decisions' and provides a stable
background that enables him/her to undertake everyday activities (such as cooking) with a
minimum of effort and decision-making. Relating habitualization to life transitions implies
that what the individual is likely to experience is that the 'patterns', into which he/she has
cast action in the past are not adequate or sufficient in his/her present life situation and
therefore, in the beginning, all actions are subject to extensive decision-making processes.
However, if the individual succeeds in developing 'new' patterns, he/she will be able to
habitualise these decisions so that each everyday practice can be accomplished without
much effort or elaborate decision-making. Therefore habitualisation seems to be crucial to
successful transition.

One period of transition, during which the individual seems to need to become familiar
with, and confident in, a series of new, perhaps mundane, but nevertheless demanding,
roles, responsibilities and practices is the transition between living with one's parents and
independent living. But which habits will ease the situation for the freshman, who—
bombarded with study information, curricula and having to deal with both a flat bicycle
tyre and a nearly empty refrigerator possibly along with a part time job and doing exer
cise—has to make sense of his or her new life and bring order to chaos? What may happen
when students move away from home and start living independently is that they leave a set
of everyday practices (which often includes, for the majority of time, being provided for)
and need to establish their own habits. Accordingly, although these young people are likely
to be anchored in a set of well-established family practices and deeply rooted food habits
and consumption, as they leave home, they are in a new situation. Sharma et al. (2009,
p. 440) write:

The transition to tertiary study is a time of great change for young adults and often
involves moving away from the family home, which itself provides new challenges
for students as they become responsible for their own food choices, planning and
preparation.

In the same vein, Doherty et al. (2011) argue that the time at university qualifies as a period
of transition for many students and that grocery shopping and cooking are as 'new' as
academic writing. As a result, the freshman who has just left his/her parents' house may
find that he/she needs to constantly prioritise between various tasks and practices, all of
which compete for his/her scarce time and resources.In the sparse literature on student
food, college students are often presented, or even stereotyped, as people who eat
unhealthy diets and hardly, if ever, engage in grocery shopping or cooking—as evident in
the freshman 15 joke (i.e., that freshmen students gain 15 pounds during their first year of
studies) (Sharma et al. 2009). Furthermore, Beasly et al. (2004) discuss how leaving home
and learning how to shop and cook individually on a budget might lead to adoption of poor

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280 High Educ (2013) 65:277-289

eating habits. In regard to grocery shopping and meal preparation, Franciscy et al. (2004)
found that students draw on family and friends in order to take on the responsibility for
these tasks. As a result, parents and friends might prove to be important 'others' that
students draw on during transition. Chapman and McClean's (1993) study of a group of
16-18 years old females revealed that consumption of healthy food was associated with
parents and being at home, while 'junk food' was associated with friends, being away from
home and independence, thus leading the researchers to suggest that these associations
might explain the food habits of young people when they start living independently.
Studies such as the above-mentioned paint a picture of young people, who—after having
left home—engage in an indulgent lifestyle and build food habits and practices around
'what was not allowed at home'. However, a key reason why the present study was
initiated is that such images do not align well with the students we meet in our everyday
university lives—students often consuming home-made and seemingly very healthy
packed lunches. Other studies give a more nuanced view on student food concordant with
these observations. For example, Sharma et al. (2009) found that German students living at
home eat a more varied diet, but when living outside home take more responsibility for
their diet; Beasly et al. (2004) concluded that independently living British students eat at
least as healthy as students living at home; and Marquis (2005) found that more
convenience-oriented students are less likely to have been introduced to cooking at home.
Summing up on transition studies, the notion of habitualisation and studies of student food,
the transition from living at home to independent living may be problematic for freshman
students; not only in terms of taking on the role as a university student but also in terms of
taking care of a series of everyday life practices that the freshmen have not had to deal with
before. Furthermore, it seems that the issue not only relates to knowing how to handle these
roles, but also, or perhaps even especially, to habitualisation of everyday life practices.
However, to treat freshmen as a homogeneous group seems problematic as both their
enactment of transition and the food habits and practices they bring with them from home
may differ profoundly. As a result, more nuanced views on student food than the
stereotypical images of students as indulging in unhealthy food and being attracted to food
stuff and habits that were not 'allowed' at home seem needed if we wish to further our
understanding of students not only as students, but as individuals in the midst of major life
changes.

National/cultural context of the study

The present study is limited to one national (Danish) context. However, this context might
be particularly interesting. Whereas some cultures have a tradition for student residences
and cantinas that provide student communal meals at very low costs, in a Danish context,
student living does not include any extensive tradition for provision of student meals in
resident housing and/or in university settings and furthermore, university cafeterias are
generally perceived as expensive by most students. As a result, the problems with buffet
style eating, which Gores (2008) identified amongst US students and the general weight
gain problems that Vella-Zarb and Elgar (2010) found amongst students living on campus
seem very different from the ways in which students in a Danish context experience
changes in food consumption as they enter university as Danish students predominantly
consume meals that they (at least to some extent) prepare themselves. Furthermore,
whereas it is quite common for students in some parts of the world to continue to live with
their parents while they study, in Denmark it is usual and doable for students to leave home
when they enrol at the university. This relates predominantly to Danish students receiving a

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High Educ (2013) 65:277-289 281

monthly 'student salary' from the government; a salary equivalent to around 360 euro per
month (/the student lives with his/her parents and 720 euro per month if the student moves
away from home. However, as eating out is rather expensive in Denmark, a long tradition
exists for student cooking and self-catering. Furthermore as living expenses are quite high,
a plethora of different living arrangements characterise this particular body of students;
including living alone; living with one or more friends/roommates, living with a boy/
girlfriend, living in larger shared student accommodation, etc.

Methodology

The research design includes two distinctive stages and during the first stage, students were
recruited through contact with study administrators, who were asked to post a note on their
e-signboards encouraging students to sign up for an interview on food consumption. At this
stage it was required that volunteers should be freshmen (i.e., had started studying at the
university no more than 3 months ago) and that this had led them to move. Self-enrolment
proved to be a key limitation of this part of the study (comprised of 12 in-depth interviews)
as most of the interviewees defined their own food consumption as 'better' and far more
'healthy' than that of other students. Although we acknowledge what Thompson et al.
(2002, p. 351) refer to as "the methodological riddle of distinguishing between a life that is
lived and a life that is told" and thus acknowledge that the accounts for 'healthier' and
'better' food habits and practices may relate more to the meanings constructed and shared
during the interviews than to 'actual lives', it does seem that one should be careful not to
rely exclusively on these 12 interviewees. In order to compensate for this deficit, the next
part of the study was comprised of 5 focus groups, 3 individual interviews and a workshop
with 17 students. In these sessions food was but one of the topics covered and students did
not know in advance that food consumption was to be discussed. Accordingly, at this stage
participants were recruited in connection with either (1) a larger study on the quality
of study programmes and general transition from secondary to tertiary education or
(2) a workshop with students, the primary goal of which was to discuss intercultural
communication.

All in all, the study includes interviews with 55 students (i.e., 15 in-depth interviews; 5
focus groups with 23 students; and a workshop with 17 students). 23 of the students
(including the first 12 interviewees) were in their 1st semester, 8 on their 5th semester of
their bachelor degree, 21 in their 1 st semester of a graduate programme and 3 in their 3rd
semester of a graduate programme. With one exception, students were aged 18-25. More
female than male students were included in the study; both because more females signed
up for the first phase interviews and because there are more female than male students in
most of the programmes covered by the study. As regards analysis, both individual
interviews and focus-groups were transcribed verbatim. As for the workshop, notes were
taken during this session and were, together with power points students produced in
groups, used during analysis. Although the study is bound by national context (i.e., stu
dents studying at a Danish university), in order to compensate for this deficit, the sample is
a mix of international and Danish students (35 students have lived in Denmark all their
lives and 20 students are Non-Danish). Accordingly, albeit a limitation is that the study
only includes students subject to the structural practices of 'how students live in Denmark',
a series of international students (from e.g., Spain, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, China,
USA and Iceland) were included in the study. Primarily, these students were included (1)
due to the assumption that there are significant differences in eating patterns and food

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282 High Educ (2013) 65:277-289

consumption across nationalities and (2) because these students do not receive a govern
mental salary and may thus be even more 'on a budget' than students receiving such
salaries. Therefore, inclusion of these students enabled the researchers to question their
own, more implicit, nationality-based assumptions about 'student life'. Furthermore, and
most importantly, the inclusion of this group of students is important as the number of
students, for which the transition to become a university student includes moving to
another country, is increasing at present (at least within the national context of the present
study).
A weakness of the study is that it is not longitudinal. One could argue that the only way,
in which transitions and habitualization can be 'uncovered' is to study them as they
develop. However, what we are interested in is not to charter 'the' transition phase; nor is it
to account for any end results of transition. On the contrary, first and foremost, we are
interested in understanding how students make sense of their lives and how this informs,
and is informed by, their food practices. As such, the present study takes the perspective of
the students themselves regarding how they perceive being in transition. The interview
guide was created on the basis of existing literature and invited students to reflect on their
food and cooking habits and how they think significant others assess their diets through
questions such as: "What do you think your parents would think about what you eat?" In
the following findings section, we account for the students' enactments of the transition of
which they are in the midst.

Being in transition

Concordant with Holstein and Grubrium's (2007) argument that life stages and transitions
should not be taken for granted, but should be seen as meaning constructions depending on
individual enactments, a few of the interviewees do not see themselves as being in tran
sition as such. For example, Laura (18 years old, sharing a flat with a friend) argued as
follows in regard to differences between her previous life at her parent's house and her
present life:

Well, the only real difference is the thing about having to cook myself. And of
course, that there are not that many people around me all the time anymore. But,
well, to me cooking is mostly relaxation. So I don't really see that as a burden or
responsibility, I see it more as a nice break from my studying.

Although Laura's life has changed, she does not seem to enact this as transition, perhaps
because she does not experience that she has to adapt to this change (Bridges 2004) as she
has already developed the habits and practices necessary in order to cook before she moved
out. Accordingly, the cornerstone of transition that Kralik et al. (2006) define as
redevelopment of self-agency does not seem to matter to Laura as the roles and
responsibilities concerning cooking are not 'new' to her. In the same vein, being asked
whether it was a major change to leave home and start living in a dormitory (albeit one
with private bathroom and kitchen), 19 year old Karen responded as follows:

No, it wasn't like that at all, I was actually well-prepared for it. My parents have a
holiday house, where they spend most weekends. But because I had a week-end job
while I lived at home, I didn't go with them, so I've been used to doing those things
for the last 5 years, like planning my own food for the weekends. So the whole thing
has actually been very easy [...] I have taken that from home, from my parents, that I

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High Educ (2013) 65:277-289 283

wanted and then I have combined it with my own way of cooking and have used it to
develop my own food habits and practices.

Karen explains how formation of 'her own' food habits and practices has been an
enjoyable change and thus, although she acknowledges transition in the form of her
'developing her own food habits and practices', she sees this mainly as a welcomed
opportunity to develop 'my way of cooking'. Relating Karen's enactment of her present
situation as one that allows for her to develop her 'own' food habits to the notion of
habitualization, Karen seems to almost celebrate this situation and the opportunities for
habitualization it brings. What is interesting about Karen is that she seems very aware that
her current situation allows her to actively develop her 'own' habits and thus, instead of
experiencing her current situation as one of forced adaption to change, she sees it as a
unique opportunity to actively habitualize food consumption in her own way.

Lost in transition?

Karen and Laura are among the few freshmen interviewed, who define themselves as so
competent that they do not feel uncomfortable with current changes in their food habits and
practices. In opposition to Karen and Laura, most interviewees argue that food con
sumption, habits and practices are integral, albeit difficult, parts of the transitions they
experience when they leave their parents' houses and start living independently. Most of
the interviewees who define themselves as 'being in transit' feel far from confident and
competent in their new roles and responsibilities. As an example, 21-year-old Marie, who
has moved to Denmark from Germany in order to study and lives with her boyfriend relates
to the transition from living with her parents to her present life as follows:

Well, it's that thing about increased responsibility; that I, myself, have to make sure
to have what I need in order to cook; to do that myself. Yes, the responsibility it is to
do the grocery shopping and to make a list so I know how much I can spend on food
every week.

Similarly, 20-year-old Ida (who has recently moved in with her boyfriend) relates to
transition as follows:

I'd say that it is a big change. One really needs to get used to the fridge not just being
full when one comes home. It's mostly that one has to start assuming responsibility,
not just for one's independence and stuff like that, but also for how one spends
money [...] To me that was a huge, huge change that I have to take care of that
myself.

In accordance with Doherty et al. (2011) both grocery shopping and cooking are
emphasized by most interviewees as 'new' responsibilities and furthermore, taking on
these responsibilities 'on a budget' involves establishing new habits and practices (e.g., to
make lists and to keep track of the content of the fridge) as well as eager and active
attempts to habitualize these activities. An example of an interviewee, who argues that
transition is difficult, is Anna:

It's actually been quite hard, because I have never, like, taken part in grocery shopping
or cooking or any of those domestic chores, the jobs in a home. I've never done that so
it's a huge responsibility to start doing that. I think it is perhaps especially the eco
nomics of it that makes it difficult, otherwise it's not that hard, but of course, I have to
pull myself together and start cooking—at least more than once a week [...] Because I

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284 High Educ (2013) 65:277-289

come from a family with 6 family members, I think it's been great to move out and be
on my own. It's mainly food, you could say, that has been my problem. Because it was
always my mum, who did the cooking and while I did secondary school, I didn't make
a packed lunch, I bought food at the school. I hated to make a packed lunch, I didn't
like that. I remember that I made my packed lunch in primary school, but after that I
didn't bother, so I always just bought something at school. So I have this thing about
the quickest and easiest and that makes me want to just go out and buy food ready to
eat, the quick fix. But at present, I spend around 100 DKK [15 euro] on food each day
and that's actually a lot, so I have to start cooking.

Anna suggests that her transition is particularly difficult as she has never been involved in
grocery shopping or cooking; nor has she ever been on a tight food budget. Accordingly, to
Anna these practices are new and she has few competencies or habits to ease the transition.
Simultaneously, though, Anna mentions the joy of being on her own. Nevertheless, to try
to get into a habit of everyday grocery shopping and cooking has been a major issue for
her. In regard to her attempts to habitualise grocery shopping and cooking, Anna explained
as follows:

In the beginning I found it fun, because I was like, now I decide what I have for
dinner. And it was thrilling to cook every day, I was just on a roll [...] But then after
2 months I started to think: Damn, I have to figure out what to have for dinner
tonight. Damn it and then it started to be something like, but I can just eat some bread
or chop some salad. And it was like time became essential [...] because it's like it
just peters out that cooking

In the beginning, during what could be labeled a 'honeymoon phase', Anna defined
cooking as fun. However, as cooking turned from being 'new' towards becoming an
everyday obligation, the thrill somehow petered out. It seems that for the first two months,
Anna stayed in a mode, in which each eating situation was defined anew, thus forcing her
to continuously engage in elaborate decision-making pertaining to what food to buy and
cook and not leading to her enjoying the benefits of habitualization. Instead of domestic
cooking becoming habitualized, Anna started to buy more fast food and she elaborates on
her current fast food habit as follows:

At the moment I don't have money for anything but food. So I have to pull myself
together and make a budget and start cooking dinner and get some proper food. I
have started to grocery shop and have started to buy pasta and such stuff. I'm ready
[laughing]. The only problem is to actually do the cooking.

To Anna it is difficult to take on the responsibilities of grocery shopping and cooking

because she has no habits to draw on and although she engaged in these activities during
the first months of independent living, she has not been able to habitualize these activities
and consequently, she is not freed from the burden of making 'all those choices' and
consequently, she turns to what she labels 'the quick fix'; i.e., buying fast food she cannot
really afford. In opposition to Anna, as discussed in the next section, many of the other
interviewees turn to the habits and practices they grew up with and/or make rules for
themselves in order to develop habits and practices that enable them to manage food
related issues during transition. However, to conclude on this section, the study suggests
that the topic of students coping with food during transition spans over a variety of levels
of skills, competencies, habits and enthusiasm—and various efforts to habitualize food
consumption that are more or less successful.

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High Educ (2013) 65:277-289 285

Rules, habits and self-regulations

Most interviewees habitualise food-related issues by making rules that enable them to
structure their lives and bring order to potential, and feared for, chaos. The rules and
practices that the students either bring with them from home or develop during the first
months of independent living are manifold. For example, Karen explained how it is
extremely important where she sits while eating dinner as follows:

There is a certain manner to it and I've been brought up to do so, so I sit at the dinner
table and eat. When I'm on my own I don't make that much of it, but I try to keep up
the manners somewhat. Because I'm like, when I have kids that's the way it should
be, they should learn to do so.

To Karen, eating at the dinner table is a practice that is necessary for her to be a person that
'eats properly'. Although she acknowledges that it might not be so important to stick to this
rule at present, she tries to keep her manners in order for this to be habitualized for future
life stages (i.e., 'when I have kids'). Furthermore, although she acknowledges that one does
not need to 'keep manners' when one is alone, at the same time, sitting at the dinner table
while eating (and not watching TV or using the computer) is a major issue for her as these
acts are very tangible pieces of evidence of the kind of person she is (and aspires to be).
Ida, on the other hand, describes how collecting and reviewing her grocery receipts has
been successful for her as follows:

That thing about collecting one's receipts, that's great, because then I can see what I
actually buy. That's mostly how I got it to work [...] But I'm a creature of habit so
when I get into a habit then it just works for me. But I think there are lots of young
people who, when they move out, realize that mum's cooking wasn't that bad and
that mum and dad weren't that stupid because they took care of so many things.

Ida is very explicit about her need for habits in order for her to cope with her 'new' life.
Furthermore, as most interviewees, Ida mentions two issues that make habitualization of
food practices difficult. One is to be on a budget and the other is the problem of buying and
cooking small portions of food. As the interviewees cannot afford and generally dislike
throwing out food, several of them apply a series of rules in order to make their grocery
shopping and cooking align with the amounts of food they actually consume. One of these
rules is to always know what they have in store before they go grocery shopping and
another is to never build up too large stocks of food stuff, as exemplified by Julie:

This week I decided that I am not allowed to buy any groceries, I'll have to do with
what I have in the freezer.

Another rule that many interviewees apply is to first decide what to cook and then make a
shopping list on the basis hereof. Some students even make food for more days at a time,
thus allowing them to have days where they eat left-overs (something all interviewees are
very fond of and enjoy as immensely as when parents bring frozen meals). Furthermore,
many of the students buy meat and other more expensive and durable food items on sales
and then store them for future consumption. The fridge and the freezer hereby become
critical 'buffers' that enable students to neither store too much, nor too little food and these
material objects (i.e., the fridge and the freezer) thus become critical for the students'
making home-made food on a limited budget.
A key issue in regard to student food is that upholding 'proper' food practices is more
difficult when one lives, and eats, alone than when these practices are conducted together

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286 High Educ (2013) 65:277-289

with others. An inter-related aspect is what appears to be a strong peer influence. In

particular, this appears to be a positive contribution to healthier eating in a number of
examples that the interviewees, who describe themselves as 'healthy-living' exert on their
(according to the interviewees predominantly male) peers, or as Karen explained:

I have many male friends, who don't really eat vegetables. But from growing up with
my kid brother I just know how to hide the vegetables a bit and then they'll eat them.

Karen also explains how she offers to bring the salad if she is invited to dinner with other
students, whom she knows do not usually eat salad. Apart from peers, parents also seem to
be important for development of what the interviewees define as 'proper' food habits and
practices and several interviewees argue that their parents (and particularly their mothers)
actually worry about whether they get proper food, or, in Josefine's and Nadja's words:

That's something my mum asks: 'What did you eat today?' Then I answer: 'Oh,
some spaghetti and meat sauce', and she says: 'You need to have your vegetables',
'Yes, yes, I will'.

Whenever I just have bread, I can hear my mum say.'Do you get proper meals?'.
'Yes, mum, I get proper meals'. 'Do you get that every day?"Well, no'. She's a bit
over- protective.

Finally, Kamilla made the following comment about how her mother worries about her
eating habits:

In the beginning, she was really worried whether I was eating and she still worries.
She thinks that I am not eating. And I don't know why. I am eating and I think I am
eating a lot. It's not like it is always a huge meal or something, but ....

To Kamilla's mother the main concern is whether Kamilla eats 'enough'. However, as
exemplified by Josefine and Nadja, mothers seem not only to worry about their children
eating enough, but also about what they eat. Practices from home stretch into the students'
new life situations as home values (e.g., eating vegetables) act as a comparative measure.
However, the study suggests that not all parents need worry and several interviewees
argued that their parents would be happy about the way they eat, or as Lucas says:

I actually think my mum would be proud.

Some mothers take on quite active roles in relation to student cooking and more
interviewees, who find it difficult to cook, explain how they often 'skype' with their
mothers while preparing dinner. This way, mothers become virtually present during
cooking and apart from small talk and general updates, during these 'skype' conversations
the student will even place the camera so that their mother can see their actual cooking and
offer them advice on how to proceed with the cooking.

Discussion and conclusion

In contrast to studies of student food, which tend to treat students as one (homogeneou
group, our interviewees span over a variety of levels of engagement and skills; from
very competent cooks to students mostly living on a diet of semi-prepared or cold meal
Although drawing on a relatively small (and potentially biased) sample, in the prese
study, very diverse presentations of student food consumption during transition emerg

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High Educ (2013) 65:277-289 287

Whereas some students come across as novices, virtually starting from scratch, others are
well-versed in the domain of cooking. In opposition to the freshman 15 myth and ste
reotypical representations of student food as junk food, our interviewees seem to engage in
food making, rule-setting and self-regulation with much energy even if, sometimes, dinner
becomes a matter of quick fixes. Furthermore, the interviewees are, to a large extent, not
starting out in a vacuum, but are entangled in their parents' food practices and the students,
who experience the least problems in regard to habitualisation are clearly those, who are
experienced cooks from home. Nevertheless, although anchored in parental practices, the
students in our study are generally very aware of the opportunities and challenges student
life bring them in terms of their generating their 'own' food practices and habits. Apart
from what is brought along from home, students talk about how they notice what partners,
friends and other students do and eat in order to be assured that the habits and practices
they develop are 'proper'. The students do not automatically extend the practices and
habits they were brought up with, but instead, new food practices are actively developed,
often with a clear feeling of being in transit. Furthermore, the extent to which self-identity
is changed depends on the competencies and skills brought along from home, the living
situation and, most importantly, the students' ability to habitualise food consumption.
Kralik et al. (2006, p. 321) defined transition as "a process of convoluted passage during
which people redefine their sense of self and redevelop self-agency in response to dis
ruptive life events". However, although exploratory in nature our study points to the facts
that students differ profoundly in regard to how disruptive a life event it is to start living
independently and how much redevelopment of self-agency is needed.
Despite the differences among students, the study suggests that students struggle with a
number of obstacles as they seek to take on the role as self-catering and attempt to build
lives that include 'proper' eating habits and practices. Even when students know how to
cook, issues such as making sure that the fridge is full (yet not too full) are challenging.
This suggests that becoming self-catering during this life transition is not only a matter of
having acquired the right competencies and skills, but particularly it relates to being able to
use these competencies and skills in order to habitualise food consumption so that one does
not need to 'reinvent' solutions anew every day. Furthermore, the study suggests that in
order to habitualise food consumption, students turn to rules and self-regulation, such as
checking current food stocks in the fridge and freezer; making shopping lists, scrutinizing
receipts; not watching TV or being online while eating. Although habitual behavior is, to a
large extent, brought along from childhood, habitualisation becomes an important issue
during this time of transition. Accordingly, the main issue seems not to be that students find
it difficult to go shopping or cook a home-made meal. Instead, the main challenge seems to
be to get into the habit of cooking on an everyday basis. Although becoming a freshman is
often acknowledged as a major life transition, little research has emphasized how freshmen
actually cope with this situation. Drawing on our study, exploratory and non-generalisable
as it is, the concept of habitualisation seems to have much to offer to the study of student
food (and perhaps other activities during this transition for that matter) as formation of
habits and practices seems to be what especially sets those students that enact themselves
as successfully managing transition aside from those who do not. As Schumacher and
Meleis (1994) argued, a successful transition is one, during which feelings of distress are
replaced by mastery. However, although our results are not quantifiable per se, they
suggest there are far more freshman students, who feel distressed about food issues than
there are students 'mastering' these matters. The study indicates that mastery does not
come easily as this not only relates to acquiring a set of competencies and skills, but first
and foremost, it relates to the more demanding task of turning such competencies and skills

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288 High Educ (2013) 65:277-289

into habits. In regard to any attempt to conduct research that enables us to offer normative
pieces of advice on how to make students successfully manage transition, the present study
suggests that it is not enough to focus on what, when, where, how much etc. food students
consume. Instead, it seems that any such research would prosper from the inclusion of the
issue of how individual students habitualise chores and tasks. Therefore, we hope that this
paper will inspire further research into how freshmen cope with their 'new' lives and
particularly how they form the habits that will hopefully make them succeed during this
life stage.

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