Abstract
This study was carried out to compare the meal management attitudes among the mothers(41 years of age) who had middle school students between in industrial complex and in non-industrial complex. The subjects of each group were composed of 192 mothers Living in Ansan city in Korea, and this study was performed by self-administered questionnaire. The results of the present study were as follows: (1) Monthly family income and education level of parents were lower in industrial complex-family(ICF) than in non-industrial complex-family (NICF). The mean age of mothers and family size were similar in two groups, but the frequency of mothers employed was higher in ICF than in NICF Most mothers in ICF worked as a manual- or skilled-laborer. (2) The mothers in ICF tended to have less positive attitude in sewing balanced meals to their families than those in NICF. The score of nutritional knowledge was lower in mothers in ICF than those in NICF. (3) The percentage of expense for purchasing staple foods to total expense of foods tended to be higher in ICF than in NICF. Engel's coefficient was higher, and the frequency and expense for eating out was lower in ICF than in NICF (4) The mothers in ICF did not try to use their time and energy efficiently for meal management. (5) The mothers in ICF were less active in sewing the pleasurable meals including the provision of various cooking methods, flavors, and temperatures, to their families, than those in NICF. Above findings show that family environment such as industrial complex-families and non-industrial complex-families influences the meal management attitudes of mothers. The mothers in ICF had a less positive altitudes for scientific meal managements than those in NICF even though they had the limited resources including money, time and energy for meal management because most mothers in ICF had a job that were paid low salary and finished irregularly or late. Therefore, these results underscore the need to provide the sound nutritional education for the mothers in ICF with respect to reasonable meal management for 'optimal nutrition of family'. In addition, the government should try to make the various welfare policies to improve nutritional status of low income famines including the poor industrial complex-families.