Consumer conceptualisations of food-related wellbeing: An exploration of wellbeing-related terms in four industrialised countries

Perceived (or subjective) wellbeing is regarded as key to understanding consumer food choices and the development of strategies to promote desirable eating habits. Yet, in-depth understanding of the specific factors that contribute to people's perceived wellbeing across cultures is lacking. These factors motivated the present research that used word associations to conduct an exploratory analysis of consumer conceptualisations of food-related wellbeing (WB). Adults (n = 4945) living in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore or Germany, and speaking respectively, English or German, took part in the study. Health, pleasure, food quality, positive emotions and social aspects of food consumption were the main associations with food-related wellbeing. Absence hereof was associated with unhealthiness, disgust, negative emotions and poor mental health. The differences in these main associations emphasised the importance of exploring wellbeing, as well as lack hereof. Not doing so leads to an incomplete understanding of this multidimensional construct. The research was conducted with four terms related to wellbeing (each in their positive and negative versions): ‘sense of wellbeing’ and ‘lack of wellbeing’, ‘feeling good’ and ‘feeling bad/unhappy’, ‘satisfied with life’ and ‘dissatisfied with life’ and ‘fulfilled in life’ and ‘unfulfilled in life’. Because these different terms gave rise to different wellbeing associations, researchers in this area must choose their empirical approach with care. The terms ‘sense of wellbeing’ and ‘feeling good’ tended to more frequently give rise to health-related associations. Conversely, ‘satisfied with life’ and ‘fulfilled in life’ tended to more frequently give rise to positive spiritual and emotional associations of food-related wellbeing. The main conceptualisations of food-related wellbeing were cross-culturally similar, but extension of the present research to other Asian countries was recommended based on several differences between Singaporean participants and those from other countries. In ethnically diverse countries like Singapore, further within-country investigations of different cultures will also have merit.