Abstract
Infancy and childhood are important periods for establishing dietary habits. It has been noted that the time when such dietary habits are fixed and stabilized varies with individual children. W e studied the formation of dietary habits in children and the changes they undergo as they progress through the elementary school years. The sample consisted of 226 children (109 boys, 117 girls) who entered Y elementary school in Yamagata prefecture during the period of Showa 58 through 60. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades asking about dietary habits, including the frequency of intake of the six basic food groups as well as the actual intake and awareness of the children's diets. The findings include the following S 1. Analysis using Quantification theory III revealed that individual dietary habits were more or less fixed throughout the school years surveyed. The frequency patterns of intake of six basic food groups were basically the same among the children of the three different grades, and remained unchanged throughout the school years. 2. There were characteristic groupings among the children that were related to the distinctive frequency patterns of their intake of the six basic food groups. The characteristics of their food intake correlated significantly with their dietary awareness (p<0.001) .
