• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2004

Although many studies have focused on dietary habits and behaviors among children, few have looked at individual dietary behaviors and food preferences and their relationships with personality traits. This study examined the relationships between children's dietary behaviors, food preferences and personality traits using a random sample of 236 sixth graders in Chuncheon. Results showed a high prevalence of undesirable dietary behaviors among children: 42.8% of the children had skipped breakfast at least twice a week, 53% had overeaten, 45.8% had eaten irregularly, and 66.5% had eaten an unbalanced meal. These undesirable dietary behaviors were negatively associated with such personality traits as sociability, responsibility, emotional stability, activity, and superiority. When asked about food preference, fruits were most popular while vegetables were least desirable. Total food preference scores were positively correlated with emotional stability (r=.204), activeness (r=.247), sociability (r=.156), responsibility (r=.249), and superiority (r=.133). Preference for meats had negative correlations with responsibility (r=-.133), sociability (r=-.146), and superiority (r=-.132), while preference for vegetables was positively correlated with these personality traits (r=.292, .244, and .230, respectively). In conclusion, the more desirable dietary behaviors and the higher total food preference scores, the more positive the child's personality traits. In addition, preference for vegetables was associated with positive personality traits. The findings suggest the need for continuous attention and guidance on desirable dietary habits for school children both at home and at school.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.97-106
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• 2020

This study aimed to evaluate dietary behaviors and food allergy status of preschool children in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan city. The survey included 592 preschool children aged 1-5 years old in 31 childcare facilities. General characteristics, feeding type, complementary feeding, food allergy, dietary behaviors based on the NQ-P questionnaire, and dietary habits of their family were considered. Exclusively breast-fed children was 32.2% of the subjects and the breast feeding duration was 6.5 months. Subjects who had complementary feeding within 6 months was 77.2% and starting time of complementary feeding was 6.1 months. Fifteen percent of the subjects had food allergies and foods that induced allergy were instant foods, eggs, milk and dairy products, nuts, seafood. Food allergy was not related to breast feeding nor complementary feeding. The NQ-P score and its 3 factors including 'balance', 'moderation', and 'environment' were 59.9, 61.1, 56.0, 62.6, respectively. There were positive relations between children's dietary behaviors and family dietary habits such as breakfast eating frequency and meal regularity. As age of children increased, instant food intake increased and breakfast eating frequency decreased. Proper nutrition education is needed to children, their parents, and their care givers at childcare facilities to improve children's dietary behavior and health.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.923-934
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to provide the basic information for developing sugar related nutrition education programs for children in child-care facilities and their parents. The results showed that the total score of parent's dietary attitudes towards sugar-rich foods was 17.94 and the total score of parent's nutritional knowledge was 3.67. A positive relationship was observed among items of parent's dietary attitudes (p<0.01), and some correlations were also observed between the total score of parent's nutritional knowledge and the total score of parent's dietary attitudes (p<0.05 or p<0.01). The total average score of children's eating behaviors for sugar-rich foods was 23.98, and the item with the highest score was 'I often eat candy, chocolate and jelly'. For children, food that received the highest preference was chocolate, and soft drinks received the lowest preference. The most frequently consumed food item was candy or caramel, and the least frequently consumed food item was soft drinks. There were positive correlation among the total score of children's eating behaviors, food preferences, and food intake frequency (p<0.01). When parent's tried to reduce the sugar intake, children's total score of eating behaviors (p<0.001) and food intake frequency (p<0.001) for sugar-rich food was lower. We conclude that parent's dietary attitudes may influence children's eating behaviors, food preferences, and food intake frequency for sugar-rich foods.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.259-268
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• 2008

Children's food behaviors have been expressed in a various ways because of recent changes in their family environment. Thus, this study was performed to investigate in-depth qualitative research on the mother's perception on children's food behaviors by focused group interview. This study was designed in four steps of planning, collection of participants, process, and analysis. Participants for the focus group interview were recruited and sampled from households with elementary school students in the Seoul and Gyeonggido areas. Groups were divided by total income and education expense levels. 1) High income household: It is better to improve currently existing web sites for nutrition education. 2) Mid income household: Easy, practical, and inexpensive off-line cooking class/nutrition education classes for mothers are needed. Nutrition programs for children should be developed through mass media and be promoted in the broadcasting circle. 3) Low income household: Motivation is required for mothers' educatior and the serious nutritional problems of children should be informed through mass media and home correspondence from school. And interesting educational materials should be developed for children to read whenever they want.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.353-362
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• 2017

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the perception of quality-certified children's preferred foods as well as consumption behaviors of nursery directors and parents. Methods: A total of 243 nursery directors and parents of preschool children were surveyed using questionnaires. Results: Parents' perception scores were lower than directors' scores for many of the questions. Parents showed significantly higher scores for food safety standard questions and nutritional fortifying questions than directors (p<0.001 each). On the other hand, directors showed significantly higher scores for questions about products nutrition and safety (p<0.001, p<0.01). When buying children's favorite food items, food additives and hygiene level of vendors were the most important, in that order. Parents' scores for questions on purchasing behaviors of quality-certified children's preferred foods were significantly higher than those of directors'. Further, respondents with nutritional education experience showed high behavior scores. Conclusion: It can be concluded that promotion of quality-certified children's preferred foods is insufficient. The nutrition education group showed high scores for perception and positive consumption behaviors of quality-certified children's preferred foods. It is important to cooperate with nursery directors and parents of preschoolers to further children's nutritional education.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.679-687
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• 2014

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Recently, there has been an increased interest in the importance of family meals on children's health and nutrition. This study aims to examine if the eating habits and eating behaviors of children are different according to the frequency of family dinners. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The subjects were third-grade students from 70 elementary schools in 17 cities nationwide. A two-stage stratified cluster sampling was employed. The survey questionnaire was composed of items that examined the general characteristics, family meals, eating habits, eating behaviors, and environmental influence on children's eating. The subjects responded to a self-reported questionnaire. Excluding the incomplete responses, the data (n = 3,435) were analyzed using ${\chi}^2$-test or t-test. RESULTS: The group that had more frequent family dinners (${\geq}$ 5 days/week, 63.4%), compared to those that had less (${\leq}$ 4 days/week, 36.6%), showed better eating habits, such as eating meals regularly, performing desirable behaviors during meals, having breakfast frequently, having breakfast with family members (P < 0.001), and not eating only what he or she likes (P < 0.05). Those who had more frequent family dinners also consumed healthy foods with more frequency, including protein foods, dairy products, grains, vegetables, seaweeds (P < 0.001), and fruits (P < 0.01). However, unhealthy eating behaviors (e.g., eating fatty foods, salty foods, sweets, etc.) were not significantly different by the frequency of family dinners. CONCLUSIONS: Having dinner frequently with family members was associated with more desirable eating habits and with healthy eating behaviors in young children. Thus nutrition education might be planned to promote family dinners, by emphasizing the benefits of having family meals on children's health and nutrition and making more opportunities for family meals.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.525-531
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• 1995

The objectives of the present study were to assess the early nutrition-related knowledge, eating behaviors of preschool children, the types of messages that their mothers give to them about nutrition and to analysis the interrelationships among these variables. The children of this study showed the uncooperative eating behaviors most frequently when they had breakfast and vegetables. In these cases the most frequent mother's messages given to the children was encourage eating some of each food. Children's eating problems as perceived by mothers were mainly low dietary intake and an unbalanced diet. The most frequent messages given to the children in the presentation of new foods were telling the child taste them and general nutrition about the new food. General topics in nutrition the mothers had discussed with their children were about nutrients, food groups, food transformations and food origins. Children whom mothers provided more information about these topics scored significantly higher on the concepts of food transformation, food origins and the total nutrition knowledge score. It is clear from this study that preschool children begin to learn about nutrition through these parental messages. Both parents and caretakers of young children should recognize the potential importance of these early interaction patterns.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.180-190
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• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the differences in food habits, eating behaviors and food frequency by gender and regions in upper grade elementary school children in Korea. Subjects of this study were 1,211 children, 645 boys and 566 girls, attending 6 elementary schools (4th, 5th and 6th graders). 389 children lived in Seoul and 822 children lived in other regions. Mean height, weight and BMI of subjects were 142.4 cm, 38.7 kg and $18.8\;kg/m^2$ respectively. 70.5% of the subjects had breakfast every day and 12.4% of the subjects skipped breakfast. There were significant differences between boys and girls in causes of skipping breakfast, overeating, meal volume, and duration of meals. Girls showed more desirable eating behavior than boys (p < 0.001). Scores for specific eating behaviors such as unbalanced diet and intake of meats and vegetables were better in girls (p < 0.001), and boys ate meals faster than girls (p > 0.001). There were significant differences between Seoul and other regions in eating behavior. Eating behavior scores of children in other regions were higher than in Seoul (p < 0.01). Children in Seoul had a higher frequency of watching television with meals. Frequency of fruits (p < 0.001), milk products (p < 0.01), and meats (p < 0.05) of children in Seoul were higher than other regions. Otherwise the frequency of simple sugar products of children in other regions was higher than Seoul (p < 0.001). Frequency of green vegetables was higher for girls than boys, and frequency of fast foods was higher for boys than girls. These results showed that in nutrition education programs designed to improve the nutritional health of elementary school children, we need to focus more on differences in the children's food habits and eating behaviors by gender and regions. In consideration of these differences, such educational programs need to have a different emphasis for each gender and regions to serve its specific needs.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.313-320
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• 2007

This study sought to compare intake levels of major dish items and food groups between normal and obese Korean children in order to understand obesity-related eating behaviors. The study was also conducted to apply the information on the differences in major dish items and food groups found in this study to development of a brief food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for children's obesity-related eating behaviors. Finally, the developed FFQ was evaluated for reliability. A total of 290, 24-hour dietary recall data from 9-11 year-old normal or obese participants in the 2001 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were reviewed to identity dish items and food groups showing outstanding differences between the normal and obese groups. Based on the level of intake amount between the two groups, a total of 7 items, including ddeokbokggi, spaghetti, ham roast, pork cutlet, dairy products & ices, kimchi, and fruits, were selected to be included in the FFQ. The former 5 items were seen to be consumed more in the obese group, while the latter 2 items were so in the normal group. The questionnaire was formatted into a frequency response section of a seven-category option and reference period of the last 7 days. Test-retest reliability of the developed FFQ was examined by administering it to 153, 9-11 year-old children at a public elementary school in Seoul twice at a month interval. The level of reliability was found to be reasonably high. In conclusion, this study suggests that high consumption of several high-calorie dish items and low consumption of kimchi and fruits may be important eating behaviors in relation to obesity risk among 9-11 year-old children who need nutrition educators' attention. The current study also implies that a simple FFQ can be utilized to reliably assess 9-11 year-old children's diets.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.475-484
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the nutrition education on preschool children's nutrition knowledge and behaviors. The study subjects were preschool children attending J kindergarten located in Wonju. Each of the control group and the education group consisted of 49 children and the education group was exposed to nutrition education while the control group did not. The nutrition education intervention lasted 9 weeks weekly basis. The t-test for the homogeneity of each group showed no meaningful difference at the beginning point of nutrition education. After nutrition education a test of nutrition knowledge using picture-questionnaire was carried out by the researcher for the subjects of education group and control group and the caretakers of the education group were offered self-administered questionnaire on the changes in children's dietary behaviors. The results of the study were as follows: 1. Nutrition education intervention showed a meaningful difference in children's understanding nutrition; the kinds and function of food, the relationship between food and body, the function of nutrients and enhanced their idea on hygiene compared to the control group (p < p.005). 2. However, nutrition education intervention made no statistically meaningful difference in children's dietary behaviors such as having breakfast, keeping balanced diet, washing hands before meals, saying "thanks" before and after meals, cleaning the table after meals, brushing teeth after meals and so on. Therefore, we found that it is hard to expect children to correct their dietary behaviors in such a short period of 9 weeks and nutrition education for preschool children should be offered to caretakers at the same time.