Abstract
The relationship between eating habits and resilience, which is an interactive concept of the ability to withstand or recover from significant disturbances, of 332 male and 302 female junior high school students was analyzed by a questionnaire survey. A factor analysis of the resilience scale was performed, and the four factors of self-direction (I CAN), relation-orientation (I HAVE), optimism (I WILL), and self-affirmation (I AM) were extracted. The relation-orientation score of the females was higher than that of the males, while the self-affirmation score of the males was higher than that of the females. Different answers were recognized to all questionnaire items, except for the dinner time and frequency of cooking in the home, between the higher- and lower-scoring groups in all four or some of the extracted resilience factors. The ratio of skipping breakfast, eating breakfast alone, and complaining about general malaises increased with increasing school year. Relatively strong relationships were found between the resilience component factors and the consciousness toward the importance of nutritional balance and value of meals in the growth of the body for both the male and female students.
