Supplementary information
Focus group topic guide
1. Introductory questions:
· What things do you like to do in your spare time?
· How much pocket money do you think people your age get a week?
· Do people in your age group do any jobs to earn money like a paper round or odd jobs?
· What do you people your age spend your money on?
2. Food/nutrition/health questions:
· What kinds of foods do you tend to you eat when you’re not at school?
· What kinds of foods do you and your friends like to eat?
· What kinds of foods do you and your friends dislike eating?
· How much say do you have in the foods you eat at home?
· What kinds of food/snacks do you buy with your own money?
· What sorts of foods do you think of as being ‘healthy’? (Probe to explore why particular foods are seen as healthy)
· What sorts of foods do you think of as being less healthy or ‘unhealthy’ (and why)?
· Have you been taught about healthy eating at school?
· How could people of your age be helped to eat more healthy foods?
3. School environment and rewards intervention questions:
· What are your thoughts about the food currently on offer in the canteen?
· Which foods served in the canteen would you consider to be ‘healthy’? (Why?)
· Which foods are less healthy? (Why?)
· What foods do you and your friends normally end up eating at lunchtime (and why)?
· Why do you think some people choose to bring in packed lunches?
· Could the canteen food be improved? In what ways?
· What does your school do to encourage healthy eating?
· If school implemented a rewards scheme associated with their lunchtime food choices (concept explained to participants in a bit more detail, e.g. points-based scheme similar to approach used on the high street), how would you feel about this?
· Do you think it would encourage more people to eat in the school canteen?
· How might this encourage people your age to make better food choices?
· What types of rewards would people your age particularly like or value?