Parental nutrition knowledge and attitudes as predictors of 5-6-year-old children’s healthy food knowledge
Sommaire de l'article
OBJECTIVE:
Young children’s knowledge about healthy food may influence the formation of their eating behaviours, and parents have a major influence on the development of children’s knowledge in the early years.
DESIGN:
We investigated the extent to which parental nutrition knowledge and attitudes around food predicted young children’s knowledge of healthy foods, controlling for other influences such as socio-economic status (SES) and parent education levels in a cross-sectional research design. Children were given a healthy food knowledge activity and parents completed questionnaires.
SETTING:
Twenty primary schools in Adelaide, Australia, stratified by SES.
SUBJECTS:
We recruited 192 children aged 5-6 years and their parents.
RESULTS:
Structural equation modelling showed that parent nutrition knowledge predicted children’s nutrition knowledge (r = 0·30, P < 0·001) independently of attitudes, SES and education level.
CONCLUSIONS:
Nutrition education for parents, targeted at low-SES areas at higher risk for obesity, may contribute to the development of healthy food knowledge in young children.