Sorting it out: perceptions of foods among newly arrived adolescent refugees in the Southeastern USA

To explore the meanings that newly arrived refugee adolescents residing in the Southeastern USA attribute to foods.

We used methods from cognitive anthropology to assess whether adolescents from different countries share a cultural model of eating behaviours.

A school-based study in a community in the Southeastern USA.

Adolescents (10-17 years) who arrived in the USA on a refugee visa in the previous year.

Adolescents showed consensus in grouping items and in identifying some foods as associated with adults and others with children. There was evidence of a shared model of eating practices across age, gender and number of siblings. Adolescents who had lived in a refugee camp were significantly different in how they grouped items.

Adolescents from nine countries shared a model of eating behaviours; these patterns are consistent with rapid dietary acculturation within 1 year of arrival or with shared models held from pre-arrival. Our finding that adolescents who recently arrived in the USA generally agree about how foods relate to one another holds promise for generalised nutrition and dietary interventions across diverse adolescent groups.