This study was undertaken to compare meal skipping, snacking, and weight perceptions between students on-campus living alone and off-campus living with parents, in an urban college in the United States. The self-report survey was completed by 219 college students (on-campus=100, off-campus=119) between April and May 2012. Two-thirds (67%) of the respondents skipped at least one meal in the past week, and most participants showed strong desires to lose weight despite their normal/under-weight status. Significant differences between the two groups were obtained for the reason to skip a meal and the type of snack consumed. Compared to on-campus students, significantly higher values were obtained for off-campus students for choosing ‘no time to prepare’ as a meal skipping reason for lunch and dinner, and ‘sweets’ as a preferred snack. In addition to the group comparison, multiple regression results indicate that the body mass index (BMI) positively correlates with meal skipping and snacking frequencies. Younger students and female students were determined to have a higher frequency of meal skipping and morning snacking. Future research is required to study the dietary factors associated with living arrangements, to help college students develop healthy eating habits.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among snacking behaviors and depression in middle school students. A survey was conducted on 777 middle school students (491 boys and 286 girls). Using a self-reporting method, the participants took 20 minutes to complete the questionnaires. Our data revealed that the height and weight of boys were 172.66 cm and 63.48 kg, respectively, whereas those of girls were 159.86 cm and 51.62 kg, respectively. Sleep durations of boys and girls were 6.44 and 6.41 hours, respectively. Boys ate more rice cake than girls, whereas girls ate more biscuits than boys. The average B.D.I (Beck Depression inventory) scores for boys and girls were 9.73 and 11.49, respectively. Degree of depression was significantly higher in girls compared to boys. We also observed significant correlations between depression and snacking (rice cake, biscuits, chocolate, and fried potato). This study may provide basic information on snacking behaviors and depression in middle school students, and the findings suggest that proper control of emotions is required to maintain desirable eating behaviors in middle school students.