Korean Journal of Health Promotion

Shin, Lee, Kang, Jang, Ham, and Choi: A Program to Build Preschooler’s Eating Habit Based on Social Cognitive Theory

Original Article

Published online: December 19, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2015.15.4.244

A Program to Build Preschooler’s Eating Habit Based on Social Cognitive Theory

Yun Hee Shin¹, Tae Hee Lee¹, Min Ju Kang¹, Ha Yeon Jang¹, Hye Mi Ham¹, Eun Hee Choi²

¹Department of Nursing, Wonju College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Wonju, Korea

²Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, Wonju College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Wonju, Korea

￭ Corresponding author：Yun Hee Shin, RN, PhD Department of Nursing, Wonju College of Medicine, Yonsei University, 20 Ilsan-ro, Wonju 26426, Korea
Tel: +82-33-741-0387, Fax: +82-33-743-9490 E-mail: yhshin@yonsei.ac.kr

Received September 07, 2015 Accepted November 20, 2015

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

Background: Human diet and eating habits are formed in childhood so that eating habits in this period have a great impact on the nutritional status of children. Eating behaviors of children are formed by those of family members at home or their diet at preschool and mass media. The purpose of this study was to develop a program to build healthy dietary habits in preschoolers based on Social Cognitive Theory, which emphasizes the dynamic interaction among an action, an individual and its environment, and to explore the effects of the program.

Methods: A non-equivalent control group, pretest-posttest design was be used in this study. All participants were dyads of preschoolers and one of their parents collected from two day care centers, 18 for the experimental group and 16 for the control group. The program was evaluated by their Knowledge about Nutrition and Dietary Habits among Preschoolers and Parents Perception of Preschoolers’ Dietary Habits. The program was conducted between March and June, 2015.

Results: At follow-up, knowledge related to nutrition (t＝-2.74, p＝0.010) and dietary habits (t＝-3.67, p＜0.001) among the preschoolers were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group. However, the perception of parents on the change of their children's eating habit didn't show significant difference (t＝ 1.13, p＝0.265).

Conclusions: The results of this study is able to be used in dietary education of preschool children as one of the evidence, and be applied as an example of children's health promotion to help them have ideal eating habits, through cooperation with a university in community and day care centers.

Key words: Theory; Food habits; Program; Child; Preschool

Figure 1.

Conceptual famework of the program.

Table 1.

Summary of Intervention Program

Subject	Contents	Methods
1st eating hygiene	Introducing to the program & pre-test	Demonstration
	Hand washing before meal	Audiovisual media
	Brushing their teeth after meal	Picture board
		Practice
		Quiz
		Hand out
		Checklist for parents
2nd dining etiquette	Learning table manner	Demonstration
	Learning dietary attitudes	Audiovisual media
	Learning how to use chopsticks	Quiz
		Hand out
		Checklist for parents
3rd food and growth	Learning good and bad foods for their growth	Audiovisual media
		Practice
		Food card
		Food song
		Quiz
		Hand out
		Leaflet
4th food and health	Learning various food for health	Food card
	Learning food and safety	Food song
	Learning food and culture	Quiz
		Leaflet
5th finale	Looking back on the program	Play-acting
5th finale	Completion & post test	Quiz

Table 2.

Homogeneity between Experimental (n＝18) and Control (n＝16) group before Intervention

Variable	Category	Exp-G		Con-G	χ²	p^a
Variable	Category	F (%)		F (%)	χ²	p^a
Preschooler	Male	7 (38.89)		9 (56.25)	1.02	0.311
	Female	11 (61.11)		7 (43.75)
Parent	Male	0 (0)		1 (6.25)	1.16	0.471
	Female	18 (100)		15 (93.75)
Parent’s education	Below high school	10 (55.56)		6 (37.50)	1.78	0.467
	College graduate	5 (27.78)		8 (50.00)
	Over university	3 (16.67)		2 (12.50)
Parent’s monthly income (won)	＜3,000,000	7 (41.18)		7 (43.75)	2.50	0.368
	3,000,000-5,000,000	10 (58.82)		7 (43.75)
	＞5,000,000	0 (0)		2 (12.50)
Variable	Group	Mean	SD	SE	t	p^b
Age Preschooler	Exp	6.00	0	0	-1.46	0.164
	Con	5.87	0.34	0.08
Parent	Exp	34.00	5.92	1.43	1.10	0.280
	Con	36.00	4.03	1.04
Knowledge for nutrition	Exp	66.20	16.04	3.78	-0.64	0.527
	Con	62.50	17.74	4.44
Knowledge for dietary habits	Exp	66.67	13.74	3.24	1.40	0.170
	Con	73.61	15.11	3.78
Preschoolers’ dietary habitsc	Exp	3.58	0.30	0.07	-0.27	0.790
	Con	3.55	0.40	0.10

Abbreviations: Exp-G, experimental group; Con-G, control group; F, frequency; SD, standard deviation; SE, standard error.

^aCalculated by Chi-Square test (Fisher’s exact test).

^bCalculated by two-sample t-test.

^cPreschoolers’ dietary habits that their parents perceive.

Table 3.

Comparison between two groups

		Pre-test M±SD	Post-test M±SD	MD	SE	Paired-t	p^a	t	p^b
Knowledge for nutrition	Exp	66.20±16.04	90.74±10.65	24.54	3.33	7.36	＜0.001	-2.74	0.010
	Con	62.50±17.74	71.35±12.16	8.85	4.78	1.85	0.084
Knowledge for dietary habits	Exp	66.67±13.74	92.59±9.34	25.93	3.70	7.00	＜0.001	-3.67	＜0.001
	Con	73.61±15.11	75.69±13.59	2.08	5.48	0.38	0.709
Preschoolers’ dietary habitsc	Exp	3.58±0.30	3.58±0.34	0	0.06	-0.04	0.967	1.13	0.265
	Con	3.55±0.40	3.65±0.38	0.10	0.07	1.48	0.160

Abbreviations: MD, mean difference; SE, standard error; Exp, experimental group; Con, control group.

^aCalculated by paired t-test.

^bCalculated by two-sample t-test.

^cPreschoolers’ dietary habits that their parents perceive.

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