Relationship of Unbalanced Diet and Eating Behavior between School Age Children and Their Mothers in Wonju Area

Article information

Korean J Health Promot. 2014;14(1):17-25

Publication date (electronic) : 2014 January 20

doi : https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2014.14.1.17

Jinhee Hong ¹, Sugyoung Oh ², Jayong Chung ²^,

¹Nutrition Education Major, Kyung Hee University Graduate School of Education, Seoul, Korea

²Department of Food and Nutrition, Kyung Hee University College of Human Ecology, Seoul, Korea

￭ Corresponding author：Jayong Chung, PhD Department of Food and Nutrition, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyunghee-daero, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Korea Tel: +82-2-961-0977, Fax: +82-2-961-0261 E-mail: jchung@khu.ac.kr

Received 2013 December 11; Accepted 2014 February 26.

Abstract

Background

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship of unbalanced diet habits and eating behaviors between school age children and their mothers.

Methods

From the Wonju area of Gangwon-do, 232 children and their mothers were recruited for this study. General characteristics, degree of unbalanced diet, eating behaviors, factors associated with food preferences, food preferences, and food intake frequencies were obtained through a questionnaire.

Results

The degree of unbalanced diet habits were significantly correlated between school age children and their mothers. Children's eating behaviors were also highly affected by their mother's eating behaviors. Especially, the frequency of eating breakfast showed a significant correlation between children and mothers. Among the factors associated with food preferences, family eating habits, appetite, and emotions showed significant associations between girls and mothers. As for food preferences, preference for meat in children was not significantly associated with that in their mothers, whereas preference for perilla oil and butter was significantly associated with preference in their mothers. The relationship of food preferences between children and mothers differed according to the sex of the children. Further, the intake frequencies for most foods were highly correlated between children and mothers.

Conclusions

Our study showed that the unbalanced diet habits and eating behaviors of mothers can affect those in their children. Moreover, the correlations of food preferences between children and their mothers were different depending on the sex of the children. Our data suggest that educating mothers about their diet and eating behaviors could improve the eating practices of their children.

Keywords: Unbalanced diet; Eating behavior; Food preference; Mothers; Child

Table 1.

General characteristics of children^a

Table 2.

General characteristics of mothers

Table 3.

Unbalanced diet and eating behaviors of children and their mothers^a

Table 4.

Relationships of unbalanced diet and eating behavior between children and their mothers^a

Table 5.

Relationships of factors associated with preferred foods between children and their mothers^a

Table 6.

Relationships of food preferences between children and their mothers^a

Table 7.

Relationships of food intake frequencies between children and their mothers^a

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Article information Continued

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Table 1.

General characteristics of children^a

Variables	Total (n=232)	Boys (n=118)	Girls (n=114)
Height, cm	153.0±7.4	153.4±7.9	152.6±6.8
Weight, kg	43.3±8.9	45.1±9.6	41.4±7.5
Number of brothers and/or sisters
0	30 (13.0)	14 (12.1)	16 (14.0)
1	154 (67)	80 (69.0)	74 (64.9)
2	35 (15.2)	16 (13.8)	19 (16.7)
3 or more	11 (4.8)	6 (5.2)	5 (4.4)

Values are presented as Mean±SD or N (%) unless otherwise indicated.

Table 2.

General characteristics of mothers

Variables	N (%)
Age, y
< 30	1 (0.4)
30–35	11 (4.9)
36–40	88 (38.9)
41–45	101 (44.7)
≥46	25 (11.1)
Education
Elementary or middle school	11 (4.9)
High school	96 (42.9)
College/university	110 (49.1)
Graduate school	7 (3.1)
Occupation
Full time job	132 (58.7)
Part time job	24 (10.7)
No (housewife)	69 (30.7)
Children's age when started to work
Pre-school children	95 (44.0)
Elementary lower grades	62 (26.4)
Elementary higher grades	68 (29.5)
Monthly food expenses, 10,000 Korean Won
≤30	30 (13.3)
31–40	57 (25.3)
41–50	56 (24.9)
≥51	70 (31.1)
Others	12 (5.3)

Table 3.

Unbalanced diet and eating behaviors of children and their mothers^a

	Children Mother
	Total	Boys	Girls	Mother
Unbalanced diet
Do you tend to eat only what you want?^b	2.5±1.1	2.4±1.1	2.7±1.1	2.0±0.8
Do you often hear from others that you are a ‘picky eater'?^b	2.1±1.0	2.1±1.0	2.2±1.0	1.8±0.8
Do you often refuse to eat healthy foods if you don't like to?	2.5±1.1	2.4±1.1	2.6±1.1	2.6±1.1
Eating behavior
Do you eat three meals a day?^b	4.2±1.0	4.3±1.0	4.1±1.1	3.9±2.2
Do you eat at regular times?^c	3.8±1.0	3.9±1.0	3.6±0.9	3.8±0.9
Do you eat slowly?^b	3.8±1.0	3.9±1.0	3.7±2.0	3.5±0.9
Do you eat snacks late at night?	2.3±1.0	2.3±0.9	2.4±2.2	2.3±0.9
Do you prefer snacks to meals?^b	2.5±1.1	2.4±1.2	2.6±2.0	2.0±0.8
How many times do you eat breakfast per week?	4.5±1.8	4.6±1.7	4.3±1.9	4.4±1.9
How many times do you eat snacks per day?^b	1.1±1.0	1.1±1.0	1.1±0.9	0.8±0.9

Estimated by 5-point scale (5; strongly agree, 1; strongly disagree) except for the frequencies of eating breakfast and eating snacks (times/week), Values are presented as Mean±SD.

Significantly different between children (total) and mother assessed by Student's t-test.

Significantly different between boys and girls assessed by Student's t-test.

Table 4.

Relationships of unbalanced diet and eating behavior between children and their mothers^a

	Total		Boys		Girls
	r	P	r	P	r	P
Unbalanced diet
Do you tend to eat only what you want?	0.14	0.040	0.22	0.017	0.03	0.725
Do you often hear from others that you are a “picky eater?”	0.04	0.546	0.08	0.371	–0.03	0.773
Do you often refuse to eat healthy foods if you don't like to?	–0.04	0.550	–0.07	0.463	–0.02	0.820
Eating behavior
Do you eat three meals a day?	0.22	<0.001	0.28	<0.003	0.16	0.085
Do you eat at regular times?	0.31	<0.001	0.36	<0.001	0.27	<0.004
Do you eat slowly?	0.18	0.008	0.21	0.021	0.19	0.051
Do you eat snacks late at night?	0.28	<0.001	0.22	0.019	0.34	<0.001
Do you prefer snacks to meals?	0.19	<0.006	0.27	<0.003	0.13	0.172
How many times do you eat breakfast per week?	0.33	<0.001	0.25	0.009	0.41	<0.001
How many times do you eat snacks per day?	0.18	0.010	0.15	0.106	0.17	0.069

Assessed by Spearman's rank order correlation analysis.

Table 5.

Relationships of factors associated with preferred foods between children and their mothers^a

	Total		Boys		Girls
	r	P	r	P	r	P
Cooking method	0.06	0.397	0.03	0.761	0.08	0.403
Color	0.08	0.230	0.06	0.557	0.10	0.277
Flavor	0.09	0.167	0.02	0.863	0.14	0.132
Texture	0.14	0.036	0.25	0.008	0.04	0.708
Unfamiliarity	0.08	0.259	0.02	0.865	0.13	0.185
Family eating habit	0.17	0.009	0.11	0.231	0.25	0.010
Appetite	0.14	0.034	–0.02	0.872	0.32	<0.001
Emotions, allergy	0.13	0.045	0.06	0.521	0.21	0.028

Assessed by Spearman's rank order correlation analysis.

Table 6.

Relationships of food preferences between children and their mothers^a

	Total		Boys		Girls
	r	P	r	P	r	P
Cereal and basic food
Rice	0.05	0.491	0.04	0.676	0.04	0.662
Barley rice	0.18	0.008	0.31	<0.001	0.03	0.729
Noodle	0.10	0.144	0.12	0.208	0.06	0.513
Potato	0.18	0.009	0.26	0.006	0.13	0.173
Sweet potato	0.18	0.006	0.20	0.034	0.19	0.045
Rice cake	0.13	0.047	0.25	0.009	0.04	0.678
Corn	0.17	<0.010	0.21	0.023	0.14	0.151
Cookie	0.24	<0.001	0.17	0.071	0.31	<0.001
Bread	0.19	0.006	0.15	0.115	0.22	0.021
Meat, egg and fish
Fish	0.09	0.184	0.02	0.795	0.15	0.134
Egg	0.15	0.029	0.18	0.066	0.10	0.303
Beef	0.20	<0.003	0.12	0.197	0.27	0.006
Pork	0.22	<0.001	0.15	0.125	0.28	<0.004
Chicken	0.15	0.024	0.15	0.122	0.20	0.036
Milk products
Milk	0.09	0.191	0.15	0.125	0.05	0.632
Cheese	0.17	0.013	0.23	0.014	0.10	0.292
Soy milk	0.11	0.113	0.06	0.506	0.16	0.104
Yogurt	0.04	0.559	0.05	0.630	0.03	0.728
Vegetables and fruits
Carrot	0.11	0.100	0.12	0.211	0.10	0.282
Bean	0.10	0.148	0.21	0.028	0.02	0.832
Mushroom	0.14	0.032	0.10	0.289	0.20	0.042
Spinach	–0.02	0.811	–0.01	0.947	–0.03	0.756
Tomato	0.13	0.047	0.14	0.148	0.13	0.196
Onion	0.10	0.130	0.12	0.191	0.08	0.425
Cucumber	0.08	0.231	0.12	0.227	0.04	0.650
Apple	0.14	0.045	0.23	0.015	–0.01	0.886
Water melon	0.14	0.038	0.23	0.015	0.07	0.469
Pear	0.16	0.017	0.24	0.010	0.07	0.445
Peach	0.19	<0.005	0.22	0.021	0.13	0.189
Grape	0.20	<0.001	0.21	0.029	0.17	0.077
Cooking oil (natural) and dessert
Sesame oil	0.10	0.142	0.11	0.237	0.08	0.414
Perilla oil	0.22	<0.001	0.27	<0.004	0.18	0.067
Soybean oil	0.06	0.381	0.08	0.411	0.05	0.636
Butter	0.17	0.011	0.28	<0.003	0.06	0.563
Soda	0.09	0.163	0.06	0.507	0.11	0.275
Ice cream	0.06	0.383	0.21	0.030	–0.11	0.273

Assessed by Spearman's rank order correlation analysis.

Table 7.

Relationships of food intake frequencies between children and their mothers^a

	Total		Boys		Girls
	r	P	r	P	r	P
Rice	0.26	<0.001	0.26	<0.001	0.26	0.007
Barley rice	0.30	<0.001	0.31	<0.001	0.28	0.003
Instant noodle	0.27	<0.001	0.36	<0.001	0.18	0.069
Noodle	0.25	<0.001	0.32	<0.001	0.18	0.063
Bread	0.21	<0.002	0.18	0.062	0.22	0.021
Snack	0.22	<0.001	0.16	0.096	0.30	0.002
Tofu	0.19	<0.005	0.09	0.351	0.30	0.002
Bean	0.22	<0.001	0.22	0.022	0.23	0.016
Potato	0.22	<0.001	0.37	<0.001	0.02	0.800
Sweet potato	0.26	<0.001	0.23	0.015	0.30	0.002
Beef	0.26	<0.001	0.24	0.013	0.28	0.008
Chicken	0.36	<0.001	0.39	<0.001	0.34	<0.001
Pork	0.38	<0.001	0.38	<0.001	0.37	<0.001
Egg	0.28	<0.001	0.26	<0.008	0.30	0.004
Ham	0.19	<0.011	0.09	0.328	0.28	0.101
Mackerel	0.38	<0.001	0.40	<0.001	0.40	<0.001
Tuna	0.38	<0.001	0.37	<0.001	0.41	<0.001
Croaker	0.27	<0.001	0.30	<0.002	0.23	0.020
Pollack	0.15	0.024	0.27	<0.005	0.03	0.782
Anchovy	0.35	<0.001	0.43	<0.001	0.27	0.004
Fish cake	0.28	<0.001	0.32	<0.001	0.23	0.015
Squid	0.22	<0.001	0.29	<0.002	0.14	0.153
Clam	0.24	<0.001	0.34	<0.001	0.15	0.128
Salted fish	0.19	<0.004	0.18	0.063	0.20	0.034
Chinese cabbage	0.20	<0.003	0.19	0.048	0.20	0.034
White radish	0.21	<0.002	0.26	0.006	0.15	0.120
Radish tops	0.21	<0.002	0.19	0.045	0.21	0.031
Bean sprouts	0.29	<0.001	0.29	0.002	0.28	0.003
Spinach	0.29	<0.001	0.31	0.001	0.26	0.006
Cucumber	0.17	0.015	0.16	0.093	0.16	0.993
Chili	0.33	<0.001	0.40	<0.001	0.25	0.001
Carrot	0.17	0.010	0.24	0.058	0.08	0.390
Pumpkin	0.17	0.011	0.24	0.013	0.11	0.262
Cabbage	0.03	0.589	0.06	0.539	–0.01	0.991
Tomato	0.32	<0.001	0.37	<0.001	0.24	0.010
Mushroom	0.31	<0.001	0.44	<0.001	0.15	0.126
Sea mustard	0.26	<0.001	0.31	0.001	0.20	0.036
Laver	0.24	<0.001	0.22	0.023	0.26	0.006
Tangerine	0.23	<0.001	0.23	0.019	0.23	0.012
Persimmon	0.35	<0.001	0.36	<0.001	0.33	<0.001
Pear	0.24	<0.001	0.25	0.009	0.24	0.001
Water melon	0.34	<0.001	0.34	<0.001	0.34	<0.001
Grape	0.29	<0.001	0.28	0.003	0.30	<0.002
Peach	0.42	<0.001	0.38	<0.001	0.45	<0.001
Apple	0.28	<0.001	0.36	<0.001	0.19	0.053
Banana	0.29	<0.001	0.27	0.005	0.32	<0.001
Orange	0.15	0.024	0.04	0.704	0.27	<0.004
Milk	0.24	<0.001	0.02	0.867	0.45	<0.001
Yogurt	0.25	<0.001	0.20	0.035	0.30	<0.001
Ice cream	0.22	<0.001	0.16	0.105	0.29	<0.002

Assessed by Spearman's rank order correlation analysis.