• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.359-367
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• 1996

To study the dining-out behaviour of housewives, the frequency, food preference, expense for dining-out in social meeting, family gathering, daily meal were surveyed with a total of 454 housewives in Pusan. (1) In the frequency of dining-out, once or twice a month shows highest percentage, 59.7% and 45.8% for social meeting and family gathering respectively. The occasion of dining-out for the daily meal is less than 1 or 2 time per 6 month (62.6%). The frequency of dining-out is highly dependent on demographic variables such as age, academic background, family income, car ownership. (2) The preference for Korean dishes is found to be top in all occasions for dining-out. And then for the social meeting, chinese food, western style food, japanese cuisine and fast food are prefered in order, while western style food and chinese cuisine are rather prefered than japanese cuisine and fast food in occasion for family gathering. When they dine out just for daily meal, korean food is prefered first and preference for chinese food, western style food, fast food is followed in order. Japanese cuisine is prefered the last. (3) Housewives answered highly that the expense they spend for dining-out for social meeting (45.8%) or family fathering (46.8%) is 5,000 to 10,000 won per person. For these occasions, the expense is different with family income. Namely, if their income is higher than 3,000,000 won, they usually spend 10,000 to 15,000 won for the occasion. And for the daily dining-out, 34.7% respondents answered that they spend 2,000 to 3,000 won.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.109-118
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• 2022

This study was undertaken to compare meal skipping, snacking, and weight perceptions between students on-campus living alone and off-campus living with parents, in an urban college in the United States. The self-report survey was completed by 219 college students (on-campus=100, off-campus=119) between April and May 2012. Two-thirds (67%) of the respondents skipped at least one meal in the past week, and most participants showed strong desires to lose weight despite their normal/under-weight status. Significant differences between the two groups were obtained for the reason to skip a meal and the type of snack consumed. Compared to on-campus students, significantly higher values were obtained for off-campus students for choosing 'no time to prepare' as a meal skipping reason for lunch and dinner, and 'sweets' as a preferred snack. In addition to the group comparison, multiple regression results indicate that the body mass index (BMI) positively correlates with meal skipping and snacking frequencies. Younger students and female students were determined to have a higher frequency of meal skipping and morning snacking. Future research is required to study the dietary factors associated with living arrangements, to help college students develop healthy eating habits.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.279-300
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• 2012

Many studies have demonstrated that family plays a crucial role in health and wellbeing in life. There has been little research, however, examining the relative importance of activities together with family members in middle-aged adults. The goal of this study was to examine the effect of family meal, phone conversation with family, and family leisure activities on happiness, health, and family relationship. Total 286 middle-aged adults (M=50.13) participated in this study. Dependent variables were happiness (SWB), physical and psychological illness symptoms, family satisfaction, sex satisfaction, and parenting sense of competence. This research showed that (1) frequency of meal with family was positively correlated with happiness, family relationship, and negatively physical/psychological illness symptoms; (2) high frequency of talking on the phone with family resulted in that high level of happiness, family satisfaction, sex satisfaction, and parenting sense of competence, and lower illness symptoms; (3) the more participants spent leisure time with family, the happier and the more family satisfaction they feel. Findings suggest that activities together with family members in middle-aged adults may enhance their happiness, health, and quality of family relationship. The implication for current study were discussed.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.278-286
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• 2009

Restaurants have two strategic levers for revenue management: duration control and demand-based pricing. Reducing dining times, especially during peak periods, can add considerable revenue for restaurants. Managing meal duration, however, can be far more complex than manipulating the price. This paper examines dining duration expectations for restaurants types(Family, Korean, Quick service restaurant), customers characteristics(gender, age, occupation, meal period, visiting frequency, dining occasion, dining companions) using an a adaptation of a price sensitivity measurement tool, naming it 'Time Sensitivity measurement tool' or TSM. The TSM is then used to derive the optimal time points, and the range of acceptable times. The results demonstrate that there is a relatively wide spread of acceptable dining duration times in family restaurant. Furthermore, the optimal time points was shorter than the mean expected dining times, which suggests that many restaurants may be able to shorten dining duration without compromising customer satisfaction. The paper explores whether demographic and dining variables have an impact on time preferences, and finds whether gender, age, meal periods, visiting frequency, and dining companion effects are significant. Specifically, women in their thirties tended to prefer a significantly longer dining times for dinner.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.169-183
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between family meals and family strengths (cohesion and flexibility) in Korean families with school-aged children. We focused on five dimensions of family meals: frequency, family rituals, communication, rules and roles, and perceptions. Our data came from 619 mothers who were married with at least one child in elementary school. Our multiple regression analyses showed that mothers reported higher levels of both cohesion and flexibility when they gave a higher priority to family meals, made family meals a ritual, had conversations on diverse topics during family meals, or experienced lower levels of meal-related stress. In addition, higher levels of family flexibility were found when a family had more structured rules related to family meals and the father more regularly participated in meal-related housework. This study contributes to the literature by understanding the roles of family meals from a multi-dimensional perspective.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.100-106
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• 2008

We examined dietary habits, food intakes, health status, and school and community life of meal skipping children, and investigated factors predicting meal skipping of children. A sample was composed of 944 children in low-income families who were provided with public meal service. The sample was obtained from the Survey of Meal Service for Poor Children conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in 2007. Meal skipping was significantly associated with a lower nutrition and health status, and poor school performance of children, as hypothesized. The school age of child, family structure, region, job of caretaker, concern about diet, and the child's visit to welfare center significantly predicted frequency of meal skipping. We suggested a few implications for community practice to reduce meal skipping of children.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.40 no.8
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• pp.753-761
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• 2007

The objective of our study was to evaluate the dietary intakes and eating habit for seniors utilizing ten different social welfare centers in Seoul, Korea. The total number of subjects of this study was 543(male: 199, female: 344) of 60 years of age or older. The survey was performed through personal interview questionnaires from May 3rd to June 1st 2006. After assigning subjects to four categories based on family type, single, couple, joint family, and other, these categories were compared with the estimated total nutrient intakes and eating habit. Validity was assessed by comparison with 24-hour dietary recalls and dietary variety score(DVS). The results showed that senior in single family type was far lower than that of couple family type in terms of frequency of meal per day and intake of snacks. Dietary variety score represented that a single female with social security beneficiary showed the lowest variety score compared with other family type. The lunch meal provided by social welfare center turned out to be the most nutritious diet and had significant proportion of daily intakes in essential nutrients such as protein, iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C. Taken together, the family type was a significant factor and the accompaniment is another effector on dietary pattern in the elderly. We strongly suggest that the current lunch program in welfare center should be expanded to breakfast meal, and furthermore the small commodity program is also needed to provide the elderly with meal for social communication.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.131-143
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• 2005

This study is performed to examine the meal management attitudes of housewives who had elementary schoolchildren in the remote rural areas(RA: n = 318, $37.2{\pm}0.3$ years of age) in comparison to those in their vicinity urban area(UA: n = 349, $36.9{\pm}0.2$ years of age) in the Chungnam province in Korea. The subjects were asked to fill out the questionnaire on their attitudes of meal management for their families. The results obtained in this study were as followings: (1) Most husbands of the subjects had a farming job in the RA while they had salaried workers in the UA(p<0.001). Education levels of both subjects and their husbands were lower in the RA than in the UA. Nuclear families were dominated by both groups, however single parent-family and step parent-family were more prevalent in the RA than in the UA. (2) in terms of ways of getting foods such as grains, meats, eggs, vegetables and fruits, the RA housewives relied more often on self-production than did the UA housewives(p<0.001). (3) The frequency of purchasing unprocessed foods was lower in the RA than in the UA(p<0.001). The RA housewives purchased the convenient foods such as instant noodles(p<0.05), ready to eatsoups(p<0.001), retort pouch foods(p<0.05) and instant teas(p<0.05) more frequently than did the UA housewives, while tuna, canned in oil(p<0.01), milk and their products(p<0.001), soybean products(p<0.001) and snacks(p<0.01) were purchased less often by the RA housewives. (4) Family members except housewives engaged more often in meal preparation in the RA than did those in the UA(p<0.001), which was more strongly observed for dinner. The time spent in preparing the dinner was shorter in the RA than in the UA(p<0.001). (5) The degrees of endeavor to provide the subjects' offspring with balanced meal(p<0.001) and nutrition education(p<0.01) were lower in the RA than in the UA. The RA housewives had more difficulty for performing meal management because of 'over work-related fatigue', 'insufficient money to purchase foods' and 'far distance from grocery' than the UA housewives(p<0.001). The RA housewives had lower score on nutritional knowledge(p<0.001) and wanted more strongly nutritional knowledge to improve the quality of family's meal than did the UA housewives(p<0.01). Therefore, the RA housewives had various problems regarding meal management such as 'over work related to fatigue', 'food-purchasing inconvenience', 'low economic status of family' and 'lack of nutritional knowledge'. As a consequence the RA housewives relied on cheap convenient foods more often in order to prepare the meal easily than did the UA housewives. These findings emphasize the need in the RA for nutrition education for housewives and a range of nutrition policies that focus upon the social and economic determinants of food choice within families to improve the nutritional status of the RA residents.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.127-138
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• 2008

This study investigated attitudes and behaviors related to family meals among middle and high school students. Furthermore, it evaluated the dietary quality of family meals as compared to meals eaten alone. The data were collected between March and May, 2006, from 353 male and female students attending middle and high schools in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, using pre-tested self-administered questionnaires. The following results were obtained. In terms of family meal frequency, 44.0% of the middle school students ate with their family 'more than once per day', and 19.3% participated in family meals 1 or 2 times per day. However, only 16.4% of the high school students had family meals 'more than once per day', and 32.9% participated in family meals '1 or 2 times per a week', showing a significant difference between the groups (p<0.001). Fifty-nine percent of the middle school students answered they ate with their family everyday or on week days, whereas 67.8% of the high school students had family meals only on holidays (p<0.001). The nutrient intakes of those participating in family meals were compared to the intakes of those who ate meals alone. For both males and females, calorie intake was higher for those who ate family meals. Animal protein intake was significantly different (p<0.001) between groups, with the results showing a two-fold higher intake for those eating family meals as compared to meals alone. In addition, the intake of animal fat was significantly higher in the family meal group (p<0.001); however, plant-based fat intake was higher in the meal alone group.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.140-158
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• 2013

This study analyzed the effect of family meals on the psychological problems of children. We performed focus group interviews (FGI) on the basic characteristics of family meals, and chose several scales (such as Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), self-esteem, and a daily hassles questionnaire), to measure the psychological variables. We collected data from 442 dyads (mother-child) and used 440 from dyads. In our results, the frequency of family meals affected the psychological problems of children, especially aggression and emotional instability. The atmosphere during meals also affected depression/anxiety, concentration difficulties, emotional instability, self-esteem, peer relationships, and sociality. There were significant correlations between meal atmosphere, family bonding, maternal personality, and psychological problems of children. We performed covariation analysis to examine and control the influence of family bonding and maternal personality; despite controlling for these variables, family meals still influenced children's psychological problems. We conclude that the family meal is a significant variable that impacts the emotional and behavioral problems of children and stress the importance of frequent family meals.