The aims of the present study were to assess the reliability and validity of the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) and to determine the factors associated with food-choice motives in public junior-high-school students in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Cross-sectional study with self-administered questionnaires. Trained research assistants measured height and weight of the participants on the day of the data collection.

Fourteen randomly selected public junior-high schools in East Jakarta, Indonesia.

Public junior-high-school students (n 681) in grades 7 and 8, aged 13–14 years (377 girls and 304 boys).

Three food-choice motives (subscales) were obtained from factor analysis and reliability testing: (i) comfort; (ii) convenience and price; and (iii) health. The subscale with the greatest mean value was health. Family affluence was inversely associated with the convenience and price subscale (β=−0·05, P=0·01) and with the health subscale (β=−0·04; P=0·02). Females were less likely than males to consider health when choosing foods (β=−0·16; P=0·03).

While its factor structure differed from those found in previous studies of adults, the FCQ can provide reliable measures of food-choice motives among these adolescents. Students from less affluent families placed more importance on food’s convenience and price, but more affluent students did not necessarily make healthier choices. Compared with females, males were more likely to choose healthy foods. Future interventions should be tailored based on the socio-economic status of the target group.