To understand the relation between mothers' awareness of and attitudes toward diet, as well as their attitudes toward dietary education, and children's awareness of and attitudes toward diet, a questionnaire survey was conducted for 175 pairs of elementary school pupils of the second, fourth and sixth grades and their mothers, 350 subjects in total. Data on the mothers' responses were analyzed by principal component analyses for two categories, awareness of and attitude toward diet, and attitudetoward dietary education. Data on children's awareness of and attitudes toward diet were also analyzed by principal component analyses. The relationships between each principal component for mothers and children were then observed by correlation coefficients of each principal component score . Furthermore, changes in average principal component scores regarding mothers' attitudes toward dietary education, asclassified by attributes of grade and sex, were compared with those regarding children's awareness of and attitudes toward diet, as classified by attributes of grade and sex. The results were as follows: 1) Mothers' attitudes toward dietary education differed depending on the grades of their children. Mothers of children in lower grades paid attention to their children's table manners and gave them a great deal of dietary advice, while mothers of children in higher grades encouraged their children to develop the ability to govern themselves in regards to diet. Such differences in educational contents were reflected in the bases for the establishment of healthy view of diet in lower grades and the development of interest in food in higher grades. 2) The results showed that there were certain peridos when mothers' attitudes toward dietary education differed greatly, depending on whether children were boys or girls. During these periods, view of diet differed among boys and girls corresponding to the differences in dietary education provided by mothers. Mothers with girls corresponding to the differences in dietary education provided by mothers. Motherswith girls in the second and fourth grades had much greater interest in overall dietary education than mothers with boys in the same grades. Mothers of fourth-grade girls were found to have the most enthusiastic attitudes toward dietary education, while mothers of boys in the same grade showed the least enthusiasm, with distinct differences observed. Mothers of sixth-grade boys advised their children how to purchase food outside the home, while mothers of girls in the same grade emphasized meal preparation. On the children's part, there were great differences observed between fourth-grade boys and girls in attention to diet and evaluation of home-made dishes: the girls showed significantly greater interest in food and home-made dishes than the boys. Boys in the sixth grade were clearly interested in eating, but were less interested in meal preparation. On the other hand, girls in the same grade showed greater interest in preparing dishes, and they were less likely to give priority to taste of food, indicating that girls' behavior regarding diet was based on much healthier views of diet than boys.
