• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.66-74
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to compare the perceptions and needs for nutrition education between early childhood teachers and parents. This data will address the effective plans and suggest further nutrition education programs for early childhood education centers. This study was conducted with 200 early childhood teachers and 174 parents in Busan. We collected data through questionnaires from teachers and parents and then computed the frequency and ${\chi}^2$ test to analyze the data. The questionnaire was revised and complemented on the basis of related literatures and previous researches. According to our results in this study, there was a significant difference between the teachers' and parents' perceptions on the need of nutrition education and the reason for needing nutrition education. And there were differences among aims, contents, methods, and effective ways of nutrition education for children. In addition, there was a significant difference among the needs from teachers and parents on nutrition education. Finally, the results of this study suggest various implications for developing nutrition education programs in early childhood education centers. These results can be used to develop nutrition education program by considering the teachers' and parents' perceptions and needs. These may be useful data when planning for the nutrition curriculum in early childhood education centers.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.19-37
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine early childhood teachers' knowledge and the level of their knowledge on the contents of early childhood nutrition education. The subjects were 105 early childhood teachers and they were asked to draw a concept map. The number, characteristics and density of superordinate concepts on the contents of early childhood nutrition education were analyzed. The results were as follows: Firstly, the most frequent superordinate concept was dietary habits. Secondly, food culture was the highest average of the number of subordinate concepts. In a hierarchy, food culture was also the highest score. In specificity scores, food was the highest score. And the density ranged from 0.33 to 3.60. In conclusion, the teachers' knowledge structure on early childhood nutrition education could be regarded as parallel, not well-integrated, rather than hierarchical or well-organized. A variety of nutrition education and customized teacher training should be provided for early childhood teachers to offer early childhood nutrition education.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.920-929
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• 2005

This study was aimed at knowing the recognition of teachers' nutrition knowledge and nutrition education at day-care centers in Seong-nam. Teachers were all female, most of whom were in the 20, and their careers were less than 3 years. And $76.2\%$ of the teachers graduated from high school and junior college. The score of the nutrition knowledge was average $14.3\pm2.2$ (out of 20). It shows that they are lack of general information of nutrition. As the teachers had higher education, they scored higher nutrition knowledge levels (p < 0.01). It also says that there was meaningful interrelationship between the nutrition knowledge and the number of children they had (p < 0.05). $93\%$ of the teachers said that nutrition education should be given when children are three years old, at least and most of the teachers thought that nutrition education is necessary and should be taught in a separate course. $50.4\%$ of the teachers thought that nutrition education for early childhood should be taught by a nutritionist, but $35.2\%$ of them thought that the teachers themselves should be in charge of it. About $60\%$ of the teachers thought that 'Cooking Activity for Early Childhood' course should be established and it is desirable that the nutrition education should be in the area of cooking activity for childhood at day-care centers. The teachers thought that dietary habit is the most important subject in nutrition education and they got more information from the internet rather than in the class related to nutrition. (Korean J Community Nutrition 10(6) : $920\∼929$, 2005)

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate food service management system and nutrition education of the early childhood education institute in Yongdungpo, Seoul. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 26 public early childhood education institute and 34 private ones. A majority of the teachers were women over 40 with at least bachelor's degree. Other than the fact that food service provides food to the children, it contributed in providing the essential nutrients to the children, as well as giving them the opportunity to learn table manners. A normal food service would provide one set of lunch and two sets of snacks, which would be provided by the institute itself. In most cases, the director or teachers planned the menus instead of dietitians. Journals, cookbooks, and other information put out by mass communication, such as TV and newspapers, were used as reference to those menus. The factors considered in planning the menus were mainly nutritional balance and the children's food preference. The difficulties in meal management were about the budget and nutritional menu planning. Fifty five percent of the subjects were did nutrition education, and they focused mainly on the table manners and hygiene education but once a year. The difficulties and complaints in execution nutrition education at the institutes were lack of nutritional knowledge, personal shortage, and excessive work. The institutes were urgently requesting for menu provisions from local Public Health Clinics. As a recommendation from the results of this study, food service management and nutrition related subjects should be more enforced into the nursery teacher training curriculum. Also, it is necessary to provide nutrition education to teachers, and as a link, the need to develop a manual for nutrition education has become urgent.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.209-221
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• 2009

The early childhood education in Korea has made a great progress during the last thirty years. However, understanding the early childhood education is a challenging task because of the diversity of the fields. Currently 38% of 3-5 year old children are enrolled in kindergarten. And several efforts to develop and distribute the standard curricula on a national level were underwent successfully. Researches are rapidly expanding in volume and the topics are becoming diverse. Focuses of researches moved from the area of cognitive development, science and mathematics in 80s, social and emotional aspects in 90s to language, curriculum and teacher education in 2000s. One of the emerging issues is the inclusion of kindergarten to public education system and free kindergarten education for young children. The second issues is more interdisciplinary policies are in need related to the low-birth rate in nation. The third one is about teacher training policy. The fourth one is related to the health, nutrition and safety of young children. And the fifth issue is moving educational system and policies that provide better future of young children while focusing on the children in low income families and children with absolute poverty.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.177-196
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• 2000

A large sample (1090) of randomly selected early childhood education professionals and government officials rated each of the 133 standards of "A Model for Institutional Accreditation for Early Childhood Education and Care"(Yang, 1999) on a scale of 1 (least important) to 5 (most important). Findings were that all kindergartens and child care centers should be evaluated for accreditation every 3 years with 3-6 months for self-study and on-site validation visits by representatives of the appropritates agencies for 1-2 days. Evaluation results are should be used by institution personnel as a guide to self-supervision, by government officials as a funding standard and by parents as criteria of program quality. Essential accreditation standards included: facilities and equipment; curriculum; nutrition, health and safety; administration and management; and support systems. Safety and teacher-child interactions were most highly rated while parent involvement was not highly rated.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.39-51
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• 2016

This pilot study examined programs for early childhood education and care in three Chinese cities. The samples for this study were one university-based kindergarten, one private kindergarten (rural area), and one public kindergarten (urban area). Six types of instruments were used to assess early childhood education and care services regarding quality matters. Most questions asked were open-ended; consequently, the interview answers by kindergarten directors or teachers (as well as observations made by the researcher) formed the basis for collecting the data. Quality components for each program were determined by a comparison method. The comparison allowed the researcher to understand the range of quality education and care available as well as the variability of existing kindergarten programs in China. The findings of the investigation revealed important information on; (a) demographic information (fees, class hours, total weeks of class, vacation, number of children and staff, class size, and teacher-child ratio) (b) teacher characteristics, (c) health practices, (d) safety practices, (e) work environment, (f) physical settings, (g) play materials, (h) parent involvement, (i) nutrition, (j) daily schedule. Implications within the Chinese context for quality practices and issues to further develop and strengthen early childhood education and care systems are discussed.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.250-256
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of maternal socioeconomic status, maternal oral health behaviors, and oral health behaviors of children, on the prevalence of early childhood caries in children aged 5 years. The Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data collected between 2007 and 2014 were applied to this study, and the study sample included 824 children who received oral examinations and participated in the health behavior survey. The factor that affected the prevalence of early childhood caries were confirmed by maternal and child factors. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The mothers' age, income level, and job status affected the prevalence of early childhood caries. There was a significant difference in the analysis considering the factors of motherhood and children in the prevalence of early childhood caries according to mother's age, education level, income level, and the child's oral examination. The prevalence of early childhood caries was higher in children who received oral examinations than in those who did not. When the mother's educational level was higher than college education, it was found that the index of child, i.e., there was a difference in the prevalence of early childhood caries according to the mother's educational and income levels. These results indicate that maternal socioeconomic characteristics are correlated with the oral health of children. Therefore, oral health education programs that include mothers for the prevention of early dental caries in children may improve the dental health of children. In addition, specific oral health policies are necessary to address the differences in the oral health between the income groups.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.97-105
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• 2019

Objectives: This study examined whether the infant feeding type and duration are related to the introduction of complementary feeding, and whether the appropriate introduction of complementary feeding in infancy is related to tooth decay in toddlers. Methods: The subjects were 1,521 toddlers among 2~3 year old children in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2008 to 2015. The toddlers were divided into the appropriate group (4~6 months) and delayed group (>6 months) according to the timing of complementary feeding introduction. Results: The delayed group were 26.5% of subjects and the formula feeding period in the appropriate group and delayed group was 8.4 and 10.3 months, respectively (P=0.002). On the other hand, there was no difference in the breastfeeding period between the appropriate group and delayed group (P=0.6955). Early childhood caries was more common in the delayed group (P=0.0065). The delayed introduction of complementary feeding was associated with a risk of early childhood caries according to the logistic models (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.27-2.57). Conclusions: The introduction of complementary feeding is associated with early childhood caries. Therefore, the importance of the proper introduction of complementary feeding in infancy should be emphasized, and public relations and education for maternal care and breastfeeding should be provided through health care institutions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.646-654
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• 2008

The principal objective of this study was to determine the effects of mothers' nutrition knowledge on preschoolers' obesity and dietary habits. The subject population included 456 mothers and their preschoolers, aged 3 to 5 years, who were enrolling in kindergartens located in Seoul and KyongGi-Do, Korea. The results of this study are as follows: 1. The majority of mothers responded correctly to those questions concerning obesity-related nutritional knowledge, but responded incorrectly to questions regarding basic nutritional knowledge. 2. The mothers' nutritional knowledge was associated significantly with the mother's age (p<0.05) and degree of education (p<0.05). 3. The mothers' nutritional knowledge was significantly and negatively correlated with their obesity, but not with their preschoolers' obesity. 4. Mothers' nutritional knowledge was determined to be positively associated with higher interest in nutritional information and food selection in regard to weight management strategies for their kids. 5. In general, preschoolers whose mother had excellent nutrition knowledge evidenced better dietary habits than preschoolers whose mothers had poor nutrition knowledge. In particular, one question regarding serving size was significantly associated with mothers' general level of nutritional knowledge(p<0.05).