Social cognition pathways linking socio-demographic and individual-level factors to energy drink consumption in undergraduates.

OBJECTIVE: Although energy drinks are marketed as enhancers of cognitive and physical performance, excess consumption has been linked to adverse health outcomes. This study examined the mediating role of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) constructs in the relationships between health literacy, sensation seeking, age, and gender and energy drink consumption. METHODS: A sample of 225 undergraduate students was recruited (M age = 19.03, SD age = 1.84; 74 male, 148 female, 3 non-binary) for a two-wave prospective design with a two-week time lag. RESULTS: Multi-group PLS-SEM stratified by perceived economic status (PES) revealed energy drink consumption was associated with intention, which in turn was explained by affective attitude, instrumental attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control (PBC), and PBC moderated the relationship between intention and behaviour. The effects of health literacy and sensation seeking on consumption were fully mediated through TPB constructs. Among higher PES participants, health literacy exhibited stronger associations with attitudinal constructs, whereas gendered effects on subjective norms were evident only in the average-or-lower PES subgroup. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest the correlates of energy drink consumption differ from those typically associated with sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and may vary across demographic subgroups, although the generally high PES of the sample should be considered.