Association between Nutritional Knowledge and Dietary Behaviors of Middle School Children and Their Mothers.
10.4163/kjn.2011.44.2.140
- Author:
Jae Sun LEE
1
;
Young Sun CHOI
;
Bok Seon BAE
Author Information
1. Department of Nutritional Education, Graduate School of Education, Daegu University, Daegu 712-714, Korea. bbseon@hanmail.net
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
correlation between mothers and children;
middle school students;
nutrition knowledge;
dietary behaviors
- MeSH:
Child;
Eating;
Food Habits;
Humans;
Meals;
Mothers;
Surveys and Questionnaires
- From:The Korean Journal of Nutrition
2011;44(2):140-151
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
Middle-school students (158 boys and 199 girls) and their mothers were asked about nutritional attitudes, nutritional knowledge, dietary habits, and food intake using a questionnaire to examine whether nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviors of mothers affected their children's dietary habits. Nutritional attitude scores (total, 15 points) and nutritional knowledge scores (total, 20 points) of girls were 11.24 and 16.13 points, respectively, which were significantly higher than 10.47 and 15.43 points for boys. Generally, mothers received higher points than their children for all scores surveyed, but the results were not significantly different between boys' mothers and girls' mothers. The mean nutrient adequacy ratio (MAR) was calculated from dietary nutrient intakes to assess overall quality of meals. The results showed that girls had a higher MAR than that of boys (0.89 vs. 0.86, p < 0.01). Relationships among variables were examined by Pearson's correlation coefficient within children and between children and their mothers. Significant positive correlations were observed between nutritional attitudes and knowledge in both boys and girls. In girls, positive correlations between nutritional attitudes and dietary habits, nutritional knowledge and dietary habits, and dietary habits and MAR were also sig-nificant. In boys, only dietary habits and MAR were correlated with those of their mothers. Nutritional attitudes, dietary habits, and the MAR of girls' mothers were significantly correlated with nutritional attitude, dietary habits and the MAR of girls. The results indicate that the influence of mothers on dietary behaviors of children was greater in girls than that in boys, suggesting that a gender-specific nutrition education program is needed for middle school students.
