Social Factors Influencing Dietary Habits among College Students: A Factor Analysis

Abstract This study examines the social factors influencing dietary habits among postgraduate college students. A descriptive research design was adopted, and primary data were collected from 85 postgraduate students selected from four colleges affiliated with Nagpur University using stratified sampling. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using Principal Component Analysis with Varimax rotation identified five major social factors: peer influence, cultural and social influence, social media influence, family influence, and economic and situational influence. The findings indicated that students exhibited a moderate level of healthy dietary habits, with an overall mean score of 3.37. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the identified social factors collectively had a significant influence on dietary habits, explaining 25.4% of the variance. Peer influence, cultural and traditional influence, and family influence emerged as significant positive predictors, whereas social media influence and economic and situational influence were not significant individual predictors. The study highlights the importance of students' immediate social and cultural environments in shaping dietary behaviour and suggests the need for socially oriented interventions to promote healthier eating practices among college students.