• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.165-177
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• 2016

Objectives: This study attempted to compare adolescents' dietary behaviors and perceptions by gender in order to recommend useful strategies for nutrition interventions. Methods: Subjects were 2,363 middle school (MS) and high school (HS) students. They completed a self-administered questionnaire on their interest in diet and health, dietary perceptions, nutrition knowledge, dietary practices, and dietary environment at home. Data were analyzed using t-test, $x^2$-test, and simple regression analysis by gender and by school groups Results: Overall, girls obtained higher scores than boys did for "interest" (MS: p<0.001; HS: p<0.01), "dietary perceptions" (MS: p<0.001; HS: p<0.01), and "knowledge" (MS: p<0.01; HS: p<0.001). Regarding "dietary practices," no gender differences were observed among MS students, however, among HS students, boys obtained higher scores-reflecting good practices-than girls did (p<0.01). In all subjects, dietary environment at home was strongly associated with dietary practice than other variables (MS boys: ${\beta}$=0.435, p<0.001; MS girls: ${\beta}$=0.492, p<0.001, HS boys: ${\beta}$=0.271, p<0.001; HS girls: ${\beta}$=0.429, p<0.001). Conclusions: We observed gender differences in some of the variables such as knowledge and perception among adolescent students. Educational programs and core strategies that consider these gender differences need to be developed. Specifically, for girls, educational programs should focus on facilitating dietary recommendation adherence, whereas for boys, the program could focus on improving dietary knowledge and perceptions.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.674-683
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the obesity and weight control prevalence according to the gender and weight control attempt among middle school students in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, Korea. The mean age of subjects were 14.4 years old. The mean height, weight and BMI value of boy students were 164.0 cm, 53.0 kg, and $19.7kg/m^2$, respectively, and the mean height, weight and BMI value of girl students were 159.4 cm, 49.8kg, and $19.6kg/m^2$, respectively. Both weight and BMI value of the weight loss attempt groups were significantly heavier and higher than those of the other groups (p < 0.01). In the perception on the body image, the girls perceived themselves to be more fat compared to boys, and the weight loss attempt group perceived their body image to be more fat compared to the other groups (p < 0.001). As for the interest degree of weight control, the interest degree of girls was higher than that of boys (p < 0.01). According to weight control attempt, in the order of the weight loss attempt group, the weight gain attempt group and the no weight control attempt group, the interest degree was significantly higher (p < 0.001). In the frequency and hours of exercise, there was significant difference by gender (p < 0.001). According to weight control attempt, the weight gain attempt group exercised more frequently than the other attempt groups (p < 0.01).

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.652-662
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• 2011

Purpose: The suicide rate of adolescents in Korea is increasing annually. Therefore, this research was done to identify the suicide attempt rate of middle and high school students and to identify factors that influence suicidal attempts. Methods: The Korea Youth Health Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2007) was used as data. Discriminant analysis and logistic regression were performed to analyze the data depending on gender to consider the gender difference in assessing the influence of each independent variable on suicidal attempts. Results: Discriminant analysis according on gender showed that 13 factors correlated with suicidal attempts for boys, and 20 factors for girls. The most highly correlated factors were smoking, depression and inhalation experience. For inhalation experience, boys had 2.7 times higher possibility of suicide attempts (95% CI 1.8-3.0) and girls, a 2.4 times higher possibility (95% CI 1.7-3.5). Conclusion: The results of the study indicate a need to classify adolescents for expectation of suicide risk and high danger for suicidal attempts through, and introduce suicide prevention programs for these adolescents. In particular, it is necessary to start intervention with students who smoke, have sexual and inhalation experiences and high levels of depression.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.511-518
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to obtain an understanding of the association of personality preferences and food behavior factors in middle school students. The subjects were 319 boys and girls in a middle school located in Kyunggi province. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess demographic factors, dietary habits and psychosocial factors including self-efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers. The MMTIC (Murphy-Meisgeier Type Inventory for Children) test was used to assess the personality preferences of the students. Sixty-seven percent of the subjects were extrovert, 53.9% were the sensing type, 76.8% were the feeling type and 81.8% were the perceiving type in personality preferences. The extrovert had higher self-efficacy than the introvert. The feeling type perceived more benefits and fewer barriers than the thinking type. The education levels of the parents, especially mothers, were positively related with self-efficacy and dietary habit scores of the students. The self-efficacy and perceived benefits and barriers were significantly associated with dietary habits of the students (explained variance: 17.9%). Results of this study presented the relationship of character types and parents' education levels on psychosocial food behavior factors and a need for the development of tailored nutrition education program considering these factors.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.582-592
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors related to eating breakfast for middle and high school students in Seoul using the Theory of Planned Behavior. Out of 2,280 questionnaires distributed to 22 schools, 2,060 were returned (90.4% response rate) and 1,899 were analyzed (83.3% analysis rate). Gender, self-perceived household income level and mother's working status were examined as demographic factors. "Attitude", "Subjective norm", "Perceived difficulty in access to breakfast", "Perceived time restriction" and "Self restriction to breakfast" were extracted as psychosocial factors as the results of factor analysis and reliability test using 17 items. In case of middle school students, boys were more likely to skip breakfast than girls. The students perceiving their household income level "low or middle low" were more likely to skip breakfast than those who perceived their household income level "high or middle high". The students whose mother had a job tended to skip breakfast than those whose mother had no job. In case of high school students, the students perceiving their household income level "low or middle low" tended to skip breakfast than those perceiving their household income level "high or middle high". The results of analysis of variance, all the psychosocial factors examined in this study-"Attitude", "Subjective norm", "Perceived difficulty in access to breakfast", "Perceived time restriction" and "Self restriction to breakfast"- were related to the frequencies of eating breakfast during weekdays in both the middle and high school students.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was aimed to identify factors related with depression among boys and girls in Korean middle school adolescents. Methods: This study used the data from the 2007 annual survey of youth health behaviors conducted by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between the period of 2007/9/1 and 2007/9/22 (with the extension of 2007/10/1 and 2007/11/3). The target number of this study was 21,047 male and 18,424 female students all in the age group of middle school 1st grade and 3rd grade. Results: Depression of middle school adolescents was 33.4% for male students, 43.8% for female students, 38.3% in overall. With regard to the relationship between the demographic characteristics and the health behavior, both male and female students felt more depressed when they had more stress, followed by the cases with stimulant intakes and chronic diseases. For male students, higher level of physical activity was associated with greater level of the depression. For female students, living with only one parent or other person seem to cause more depression. Conclusion: Depression of middle school adolescents requires a special attention from the family, the school and society in general to find out and eliminate the root of these symptoms.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.103-111
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• 2009

Purpose: By analyzing factors related to suicide ideation of Korean middle and high school students, the purpose of this study was to multi-dimensionally understand suicide ideation of Korean middle and high school students and arrange the plans to prevent suicide. Methods: This study used and analyzed the data on ‘The 3rd (Year2007) Korea Youth Health Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYHRBWS)' conducted by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this study, we analyzed 74,698 respondents in total. SPSS 12.0 Program was used to analyze the survey. Descriptive statistics, Chi-Square Test and multivariate logistic regression were also used as research methods. Results: 23.8% of the Korean middle and high school students had suicide ideation during the last one year. Girls had higher possibility of suicide ideation by 1.51 times compared to boys. Students with poor academic achievement had more suicide ideation. In terms of health characteristics, students who perceived themselves as not healthy, and students with short weekday sleeping hours, more drinking experience and more smoking experience had more suicide ideation than others. Furthermore, students who perceived themselves as overweight or obese had more suicide ideation than other students. In terms of mental characteristics, students with high level of stress, low level of happiness and depression had more suicide ideation. Conclusion: As a result of this study, we found out that the factor that had the biggest influence on suicide ideation of Korean middle and high school students was depression. Consequently, active supports and policies to decrease suicide ideation of Korean middle and high school students are necessary. Therefore, active interviews, education for suicide prevention, and periodical screening inspection should be introduced in schools.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.943-966
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• 2012

The purpose of this research was to compare the leadership characteristics and emotional intelligence between scientifically gifted middle school students and general students and to investigate the emotional intelligence's effects on leadership characteristics. For this study, 150 scientifically gifted middle school students and 130 general students were participated. The results obtained from this study were as follows. First, the total score of leadership characteristic and sub-domains of leadership characteristic showed significant difference. The leadership characteristic of the gifted students turned out to be significantly higher than that of general students. Investigating gender difference, it showed that the score of girls significantly higher than that of boys in some sub-domain both gifted and general students. Second, the total score of emotional intelligence and sub-domains of emotional intelligence showed significant difference. There were significant differences between the two groups in 'thinking-acceleration ability by emotion' and 'ability of utilizing emotional knowledge'. Investigating gender difference, it showed that the score of girls significantly higher than that of boys in some sub-domain both gifted and general students. Third, it proved to be significantly positive correlation between leadership characteristic and emotional intelligence of gifted middle school students. Forth, the gifted students' emotional intelligence affected leadership characteristic significantly by multiple regression analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.295-307
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to find ways to improve foodservice quality and satisfaction of middle school students in school lunch service. Recognition of concerns about school lunch and quality attributes was evaluated by gender. And we tried to investigate quality attributes which could affect degree of foodservice satisfaction by gender. Methods: Two hundred students from each of 6 middle schools (3 schools in urban and 3 schools in rural) in Gyeonggi Province were surveyed using self-developed questionnaires. Total of 1,103 questionnaires (male 556 and female 547) were collected and data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, t-test, cross table and stepwise multiple regression by SPSS 11.0. Results: There were not significant differences in average importance scores (male 4.09, female 4.06) and average performance scores (male 3.36, female 3.30) of quality attributes between middle school boys and girls. But there were significant differences in 7 and 6 of 25 quality attributes in evaluating importance and performance respectively by gender. There was not a significant difference (male 3.13, female 3.24) in degree of foodservice satisfaction by gender. But there were significant differences in the distribution of satisfaction. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that degree of satisfaction was influenced by a taste of food, quick complaint handling, providing favorite foods, and food hygiene in male students (F=$51.1^{***}$, adjusted $R^2$=.265). Degree of satisfaction was influenced by a taste of food, providing favorite food, proper meal prices, providing a wide variety of food in female students (F=$91.4^{***}$, adjusted $R^2$=.399). Conclusion: We found out that there were significant differences in quality attributes when evaluating importance and performance and in quality attributes which could affect foodservice satisfaction by gender.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.559-569
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• 2010

This study investigated the educational status, students' recognition, educational needs and degree of difficulty on the food and nutrition section of Technology Home economics subject in middle schools. It was carried out through questionnaires. The subjects were 503(boys; 246, girls; 257) middle school students in 3rd grade in the Daejeon area. The results were as follows. The students' preference for food and nutrition section was 58.5% of boys and 72.0% of girls. On the educational status of this section, The highest cooking frequency was once a year(52.3%), but 12.9% of students had never done cooking practice. Generally, practice education was not enough in subjected schools. The education of food and nutrition section was mainly conducted by lecture. For the behavioral change of students after learning this section, 'I can cook some simple foods' was the most(36.8%) than the other. The contents of high educational needs in this section were 'cooking foods' and ‘basic cooking methods'. A average degree of difficulty in this section was 2.89 points of the likert scale(1~5 point), particularly, 'change of food components by cooking' was the highest at 3.17 points of likert scale(1~5 point) in this degree. In relation to demographic background, the difficult degrees of this section were significantly higher than the other, when their parent's education was under middle school and their fathers' had no occupation. It suggests an increase in cooking frequency, complementing contents needed in life and using various audio-visual education aids are necessary for the education of food and nutrition section.