Adolescents are among the heaviest consumers of sweetened beverages in the United Kingdom, yet a new study suggests that many of them have barely heard of the policy designed to curb those drinks. Researchers analysing focus group discussions with 23 young people, aged 11 to 14, from two state-funded schools in Essex found that the participants expressed broad support for population-based measures to reduce sugar consumption but were largely unaware of the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy, the tax introduced to encourage manufacturers to reformulate their products with less sugar.
The study, published in BMC Public Health, took a secondary look at existing focus group data and interpreted it through the Theory of Planned Behaviour, a widely used framework for understanding how attitudes, social pressures and perceived control shape intentions and actions. While the framework has been applied extensively in quantitative studies of dietary patterns, the authors note that qualitative applications of this kind, particularly in the context of real implemented policies such as the levy, have been rare. To their knowledge, they report, this is the first study to apply the theory qualitatively to adolescents’ perceptions of sugar, sugar-sweetened beverages and the levy itself.
The analysis identified six interrelated and overlapping themes corresponding to the theory’s constructs: attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, intention and behaviour, together with a theme capturing the adolescents’ lack of awareness of the levy. Two subthemes stood out as especially influential in shaping the young people’s views. The first was the attitude that sugar is bad, a broadly negative view of sugar that framed how participants thought about sweetened drinks. The second was parental restriction, with the role of parents in limiting access to such beverages emerging as a strong social influence on what the adolescents consumed.
One notable methodological outcome of the work is a proposed adaptation of the Theory of Planned Behaviour model itself. In the version the researchers outline, the constructs overlap rather than sitting in neat sequence, and a two-way feedback loop runs between perceived behavioural control and behaviour, bypassing intention altogether. This suggests that, for these adolescents, what they feel able to do in a given moment may shape what they drink directly, rather than only through a deliberate intention to change.
The findings carry implications for the ongoing evaluation of the levy. Because the adolescents in the study supported population-based interventions to reduce sugar consumption despite knowing little about the tax, the authors suggest that expanding the levy to cover currently exempt sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit juices could be acceptable to the target group and would likely further reduce sugar consumption. They caution, however, that further research is needed to explore young people’s perspectives on the drinks that are currently exempt from the policy.
The study also has clear limits. It draws on focus groups from a small sample of 23 participants at two schools in a single English county, with 15 female and 8 male participants, and it analyses previously collected data rather than gathering new responses. The authors position the work as a step toward a theoretically informed understanding of how the levy may be working among adolescents, and as groundwork for future research in the long-term evaluation of the policy, rather than as a definitive measure of its effects.
Subject of Research: Adolescent perceptions of sugar-sweetened beverages and the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy analysed through the Theory of Planned Behaviour
Article Title: Youth perspectives on sugar-sweetened beverages and the UK soft drinks industry levy: secondary analysis of focus group data using the theory of planned behaviour
Article References: McCarthy, R., Jones, C., & White, M. (2026). Youth perspectives on sugar-sweetened beverages and the UK soft drinks industry levy: secondary analysis of focus group data using the theory of planned behaviour. BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-29693-z
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-026-29693-z
Keywords: sugar-sweetened beverages, Soft Drinks Industry Levy, adolescents, Theory of Planned Behaviour, thematic analysis, sugar tax, childhood obesity, UK public health, focus groups, parental restriction, Youth, perspectives
News Source: Daisy Hatcher. (October 29, 2026). Research report: Youth perspectives on sugar-sweetened beverages and the UK soft drinks industry levy: secondary analysis of focus group data using the theory of planned behaviour. Scienmag.
