A Study on Schoolchildren's Dietary Consciousness and Behavior in Relation to Consciousness of Daily Living

Abstract

To clarify children's dietary consciousness and behavior and to relate them with their consciousness of daily living, a questionnaire survey was conducted for 1568 elementary school pupils of the second to sixth grades. The major results were as follows: 1) Lower-grade children had exemplary and healthy views on diet. Though they were too young to help preparation of meals, they were strongly interested in knowledge about foods and cooking skills. In contrary, higher-grade children often helped meal preparation but tended to free from such views and became flexible and diversified according to, for instance, their favorable tastes. At the same time, they showed much interest in information of foods provided outside the home . 2) Children who enjoyed school life and had positive feeling about the relationship with their families tended to show strong interest in knowledge on foods and cooking skills to develop exemplary and healthy views on diet and to desire meals taken with their families. These consciousness and behavior were judged to be related with the school education and the parents' expectation on their children. Children who wished to spend more time in leisure showed higher interest in knowledge on foods taken outside the home. 3) Regarding the relationship between the dietary consciousness and behavior and the self-evaluated health status, the more subjective symptons the more highly interest in knowledge on foods taken outside the home and the less exemplary and healthy views on diet among the boys, and the more subjective symptons the more highly desire to take meals with their families among the girls.