ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Sustainable Diets
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1689613
This article is part of the Research TopicUnderstanding Psychological Drivers of Food Consumption and Waste: Pathways to Sustainable ChoicesView all 6 articles
Sustainable Dietary Behavior and Food Choices among Sport Sciences Students: A Cross-Sectional Study within the Theory of Planned Behavior
Provisionally accepted
Mehmet Emre Eryucel1
Ayse Sena Cakır2*
Melih Balyan3
Mehmet Behzat Turan4*
Cemali Cankaya5
Vesile Şahiner Güler6
İbrahim Dalbudak5
Osman Pepe7- 1Akdeniz Universitesi, Antalya, Türkiye
- 2Kayseri Universitesi, Talas, Türkiye
- 3Ege Universitesi, Izmir, Türkiye
- 4Erciyes University, Kayseri, Türkiye
- 5Usak Universitesi, Usak, Türkiye
- 6Erciyes Universitesi, Talas, Türkiye
- 7Suleyman Demirel Universitesi, Isparta, Türkiye
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Background: Sustainable food consumption addresses global environmental challenges and safeguards long-term public health. Understanding how sustainability awareness translates into dietary practices is particularly important among young populations. Objective: This study examined the mediating role of sustainable dietary behavior in the relationship between sustainable consumption tendencies and sustainable food consumption behavior among sport sciences university students, using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a partial framework. Methods: A cross-sectional design was applied with 414 Erciyes University Faculty of Sport Sciences students. Data were collected through the Sustainable Consumption Scale, Sustainable Nutrition Behavior Scale, and Sustainable Food Consumption Behavior Scale. Mediation analysis was performed using PROCESS Macro Model 4 with 5,000 bootstrap samples to test indirect effects. Results: Sustainable dietary behavior significantly mediated the association between sustainable consumption and sustainable food consumption behavior (indirect effect = 0.10, 95% CI [0.04, 0.15]). Sub-dimensions such as seasonal and local food choices and waste reduction are strongly linked with sustainable food consumption. Conclusions: The findings suggest that fostering sustainable dietary behaviors is crucial for converting sustainability awareness into concrete dietary practices. University students constitute a key target group for public health and sustainability initiatives, and interventions should emphasize education, accessibility, and awareness to reinforce behavior-based change.
Keywords: dietary behavior, food choice, Food waste, sustainable consumption, sustainablenutrition behavior, Theory of Planned Behavior, university students
Received: 21 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Eryucel, Cakır, Balyan, Turan, Cankaya, Şahiner Güler, Dalbudak and Pepe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ayse Sena Cakır, aysesenasahin@kayseri.edu.tr
Mehmet Behzat Turan, behzatturan@erciyes.edu.tr
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.