• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.596-602
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to investigate parents' behavior and attitudes regarding their kids' snacking and dietary life education. A survey was conducted with the parents (N=412) of elementary students from seven provinces, includeing Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Kwangju, Gyungnam, Chungnam, and Kangwon. Kids' snacks consisted mainly of purchased foods rather than homemade foods. Parents' main concerns regarding kids' snacks were nutrition (44.9%), taste (24.3%), and safety (23.5%). Over 50% of parents checked food labels, especially expiration date (96.4%), food ingredients (49.5%), and food additives (33.5%). The snack items frequently provided to kids were fruits (62.8%), milk (55.5%), bread (47.1%), and snack items (23.3%). Parents responded that the amount of their kids' snacking was adequate (47.8%), small (33.7%), or large (18.2%). The results show that more research is needed regarding the adequacy of kids' snacking, considering that 15.7% and 22.4% of the children ate more and less, respectively, than their daily energy requirement. 76.5% of the parents performed home education regarding their kids' dietary habits, especially on the topics of 'balanced diet' (83.9%), 'healthful food' (53.7%), and 'eating three meals a day' (40.2%). Parents obtained dietary information from TV (65.2%), internet (12.0%), and newspapers (7.0%). From this study, we found that parents perceived their kids' snacking behavior correctly, and considered home-education for their kids' dietary habits positively. However, the information resources were limited, which makes it necessary to develop parents' education programs.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.199-206
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate snacking behavior in adolescents. We selected one middle school and one high school in 11 school districts in Seoul. The subjects were 1,813 students (904 boys and 909 girls) in 21 schools (11 middle schools and 10 high schools). Subjects reported their snacking behavior: snack frequency, snack type, snack time, with whom to eat snack, place to purchase snack. The subjects were classified into four groups by gender and schooling. The mean snack frequency was 2.8. Girls ate snacks more frequently than boys (p < 0.001). More than half of subjects ate 1 to 3 snacks a day. Only 9.3% of them did not eat any snack. Tangerine was highly ranked in snack type. Each subject groups had different snack time (p < 0.01) and type of snack (p < 0.001). Most snack was consumed alone (46.6%), however they mainly ate fruits and other foods with family. 46.9% of snacks were purchased outside. A typical snack time was 'before dinner' for most snacks except fruits. Unhealthy foods like soft drinks, cookies, chips, candies, chocolates, ice creams had relatively high proportion in snack consumption with friends. In conclusion, adolescents had different snacking behaviors by their age and gender. These results indicate necessities of multi-dimensional efforts at home, school, media and government level considering adolescents' age and gender for their healthy snacking behavior.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.91-102
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study examines life stress, dietary attitudes, and snacking frequency for college students living in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The purpose of this study is to assist college students feeling stressed by offering desirable dietary attitudes and choices of the appropriate snacks by providing educational materials that offer appropriate nutrition education and nutritional information. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A survey was conducted on a total of 600 college students aged 19-29-year-olds living in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province (234 male students and 366 female students). Collected data were analyzed using SPSS WIN 28.0 program. RESULTS: Life stress among college students did not differ significantly between the genders. Male students were more stressed about lover (P < 0.01), while female students were more stressed about value problems (P < 0.01) and future problems (P < 0.05). Dietary attitude ratings were 3.1 for both male and female students with no significant difference. The overall snacking frequency was 4.1 times/day-4.2 times/day for male students and 4.0 times/day for female students-thus, there was no significant difference. Male students consumed 'beverage' (P < 0.01) more frequently than female students. Life stress and snacking were positively correlated for 'biscuit/cookie,' 'chip,' 'cereal,' 'juice/smoothie,' 'café americano,' 'café latte,' 'tea,' 'jelly,' 'chocolate,' 'rice cake,' 'milk,' 'flavored milk,' and 'ice cream' among male students. Among female students, life stress and snacking were positively correlated with 'cereal,' 'caramel,' and 'soymilk,' and negatively correlated for 'biscuit/cookie' and 'carbonated drink.' CONCLUSIONS: College students should manage their stress by identifying its causes and learning how to deal with stressful situations. Additionally, providing them with proper nutrition education based on the correct nutritional information is essential for promoting good food attitudes and snacking behaviors.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.11-27
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate snacking behavior of high school students. The subjects were 1,587 students (684 male, 903 female) in Seoul and Paju. The highest number of eating snacks was 'once(39.9%)' per day, and they preferred 'milk and cookies' and 'fruit.' For the result of reasons for choosing a snack, they chose 'what I want to have (59.6%)' most and 'snacks don't affect eating meals (48.0%).' Also, compared with the ones with 'an elementary school diploma,' the percentage of those with 'a middle school diploma' was higher in 'having snacks once or three times' according to father's education level(p<0.05). In snack types and general characteristics, they chose 'milk and cookies' when their expenses range 'under 50000 won' and '100,000 won' and 'fruit' when '70,000won' and 'over 100,000 won (p<0.05).' In the reasons for choosing a snack, younger mothers(30-50ages) said 'what I want to have' while elder mothers($$\geq_-51ages$$) 'depending on my mood.' Also, the respondents whose mothers had 'a high school diploma' answered 'what I want to have' the most (p<0.05). Especially, in case of effects after eating snack, they answered 'poor meals (35.5%)' whose mother's job was professional. These results suggest that the general characteristics of family environment may affect snacking behavior among high school students. They need a guideline to help select healthy snacks for desirable eating behavior.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.102-113
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• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship among dietary behavior, meal balance, and clinical symptoms related nutritional status and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) in preschool children. The survey was conducted using questionnaires and the subjects were 3~6 years old preschool children in Samcheok. Subjects were divided into an ADHD dispositions group(n=88) and a normal group(n=129) based on assessments conducted by the children's mother using the Abbreviated Conners's Parent Rating Scale. There was no significant difference in meal frequency, meal speed, meal regularity or meal balance between children with ADHD dispositions and the normal groups. The ADHD disposition group had a higher proportion of children with picky eating(p<0.05), too much snacking(p<0.05) and over eating (p=0.05) habits than the normal group. In addition, the ADHD dispositions group had a higher frequency of clinical symptoms such as 'breathlessness when going up stairs', 'sleeplessness', 'anxiety' and 'tiredness'. Overall, there was a significant relationship between ADHD disposition and dietary problems and clinical symptoms related to poor nutritional status in preschool children. Therefore, to prevent and treat ADHD in preschool children, proper dietary management such as correcting of picky eating, over snacking and overeating is needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 1995

The purpose of this study was to survey several aspects of food-related knowledge, attitude and behavior of college students. Seven hundred male and female students in Seoul and Kyunggi-do area were randomly selected. And self-administered questionnaires were used. It was consisted of weight concern, nutritional knowledge, meal frequency, preference of snacks and psychological aspects of eating behaviors. The results were as followes: 1. The 66.5% of males and 87.9% of females were concerned about weight control. While 42% of male respondents wanted weight gain and 43% weight loss, most of female respondents wanted to lose weight. 2. The score of nutritional knowledge of males was significantly lower than the score of females (p<0.01). 3. The meal frequency was 3.4 times a day for male students and 3.6 for female students. But males showed higher frequency rates in three regular meals and females showed higher rates in snacking. Both male and female students considered that supper was the most important meal of the day and skipped breakfast frequently. 4. Fruits, beverage and milk were favorite snacking items for college students. But there were some differences in selection of food items by snacking time. Carbonated drinks and coffee were frequently selected by morning male and female snackers. Noodles and cookies were preferred by males and cookies were preferred by females as afternoon snack. Fruits were most often preferred by both males and females in the evening. 5. Physical tiredness and/or psychological factors were observed to influence the amount of food intake. After increase of food intake, male students felt more comfortable than female students who were afraid of their weight gain.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.513-524
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• 2010

This study was designed to examine nutrition label use, self-efficacy, snacking and eating behaviors of middle school students, and to investigate if these characteristics were different by nutrition label use. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to 348 middle school students in Kyunggi, Korea. About a third of subjects read nutrition labels when they purchased snacks/packaged foods. Most nutrition label users were interested in reading information on calories, fat and trans-fat. Self-efficacy of eating/selecting snacks or general nutrition behavior was moderate (mean score: 44.4 out of 60), with significantly higher score in nutrition label users compared to nonusers (p < 0.001). Nutrition label users felt more confident in 9 items out of 15 items of self-efficacy, such as "taking fruits instead of cookies/candy for snack" (p < 0.001), "choosing milk instead of soft drink" (p < 0.01), "not having snacks after dinner" and "avoiding processed foods for snacks" (p < 0.05). Subjects had snacks 1.3 times a day, and nutrition label nonusers consumed snacks more frequently than the counterparts (p < 0.01). About 55% of nutrition label users and 64.7% of nonusers mainly purchased snacks for themselves (p < 0.05). Commonly purchased snacks by adolescents were ice cream, cookies/chips, breads and ramen. Major considerations in purchasing snacks were taste (46.9%) and price (34.6%). In selecting snacks, the influence of friends and parents was greater than the other sources. Based on eating frequency of snacks, nutrition label users were more likely to consume healthy snacks, such as fruit juices, vegetables, milk, yogurt, and potato/sweet potato than nonusers (p < 0.05). Eating behaviors measured by 15 items scored 33.6 out of 45. Nutrition label users showed better eating behaviors, such as "eating meals slowly", "eating foods cooked with plant oil", and "eating out less frequently" (p < 0.05). Study results showed that majority of adolescents did not read nutrition labels, selected snacks for themselves and had somewhat unhealthy foods for snacks. This study also showed the differences in self-efficacy, snacking and eating behaviors between nutrition label users and nonusers. In nutrition education, it is necessary to stress the importance and skills for reading nutrition labels. It is also needed to help adolescents to select healthy snacks and have desirable eating behaviors, as well as increasing self-efficacy.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.150-159
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• 2007

Since the 1980's, despite the conclusion of a number of studies in Western countries focusing upon weight maintenance there has been no similar research in Korea which takes into account the contrasts of culture and eating habits between east and west. In order to identify eating, snacking and exercise behaviors, 24 female university students who have maintained weight for at least a year were enrolled fur an 11 day study. Participants were required to sign into the program and complete the questionnaire, answering questions by concerning what they ate and did everyday. After excluding unanswered questions, data over 11 days were exported into the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, then both ANOVA and Kendall's tau correlation were applied with SPSS. 75% of weight maintainers had normal BMI (18-23.5) in relation to Korean standard, and appeared to eat a main meal smaller than moderate in portion size. Only two days showed that amount of breakfast eaten negatively correlated with lunch (p < 0.05), while no correlations between amounts of lunch and dinner eaten over all study period. Compared with breakfast or lunch, dinner was usually larger in portion size, but some variables such as TV viewing, restaurant meals, number of people at dinner table seemed not correlated with amount of dinner eaten. In addition, the weight-maintainers reported they rarely consumed snacks or sweetened beverages. Unlike their western counterparts, ffw participants reported that they took part in regular exercise during the day, which may lead us to the conclusion that these young female weight maintainers seem to maintain their weight with eating behaviours such as 'eat small portion', 'avoid snacking' and 'avoid soft drinks' rather than doing regular exercise. The study did not include a control group, and was foreshortened due to technical difficulties so it may be necessary to repeat the study while considering these two points.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.562-574
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• 2006

The study compared eating and physical activity related behaviors and self-esteem between healthy weight and obese children by presenting 175 primary school students in Busan City and Gyeongsang province with a self-reported questionnaire and Coopersmith's self-esteem inventory. The questionnaire was composed of 25 items, weighted primarily by a Likert scale. The self-esteem inventory presented to the students comprised 25 'Yes' or 'No' response questions to different statements. The study found obese children were more likely to think they always had to control their weight (p=0.000), reportedly measuring their weights significantly more than the healthy weight children. Also the study found that obese children are significantly more likely than healthy weight children to go on a diet, however neither group were successful in losing weight as the duration of the diet in 79.5% of the total sample lasted no longer than one week. In comparison to healthy weight children, obese children reported that they consumed fewer snacks during the day, avoided snacking subsequent to an evening meal and exercised more frequently for as long as physically possible. Interestingly, we found no difference of reported self-esteem between groups, though the obese group were more likely to answer that their parents did not understand them (p=0.055) Based on these findings, we concluded that the obese children who participated in the study were more aware of their body weights than the healthy weights children. It may be necessary to investigate further the relationship between self-esteem and participants' weights while considering other variables such as personality and body image.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.352-362
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• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of obesity stress on the eating behavior of elementary school students. Using a questionnaire, 300 students in the sixth grade from 2 schools in Kyunggi-do were surveyed (Boys: N=145, Girls: N=155). Data analysis was managed by SPSS software (version 13.0). The link between obesity stress and eating habits or behaviors was dependent on physical discomfort. There was also a large group of students experienced irregularity in their meal times during the day. Furthermore, there were significant differences in mealtime among boys under psychic stress caused by obesity. In the case of dairy intake during breakfast, the significant signs of obesity stress for were physical discomfort for boys and psychic stress for the girls. It was found for both boys and girls that more frequent midnight snacking decreased the efforts to overcome obesity stress. Therefore, a professional nutrition program that can educate school children must be implemented both in school and at home. In addition to overweight or obesity children, normal weight and underweight children can also benefit from this program that includes health counseling for weight and eating behaviors.