Thesis (Ph. D. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / The aim of this study was to investigate knowledge, attitudes and practices of primary
school children towards healthy diet in Dikgale Village, Limpopo Province, South
Africa. This study was an intervention study at eight primary schools in Dikgale Village.
The study used both qualitative and quantitative research where mixed methods
research design. A total of 324 participants consisting of Grades 6 and 7 males and
females was purposively selected. These participants were divided into experiment
and control group after pre-test but before the intervention. This study used a 27-item
questionnaire which covered, knowledge on healthy diet, attitudes, practices,
subjective norm and self-efficacy questions as well as focus group interviews. The
main findings of the study comprise the following: (i) Learners in the experiment
condition did not reflect more health-related practices (F(1.315)=0.20; p>887), i.e.,
when considering co-variables and changes in health attitude, subjective norm and
self-efficacy; and (ii) After intervention, there was a significant increase
(F(1.315)=115.72; p<0.001) in health-related knowledge on the experiment group, i.e.,
when considering co-variables and changes in health attitude, subjective norm and
self-efficacy. In addition to this significant increase, 58.3% of the differences between
both groups seemed related to the intervention with regard to changes in knowledge
acquisition. However, there was no significant increase on both health knowledge and
health practices on the control group. The results suggested that, even if there can be
changes in knowledge due to intervention, healthy practices may be difficult to change
mainly because knowledge alone cannot decrease the prevalence of health-related
conditions. As a result, this study suggest that the curriculum should cover Food
knowledge practice so as to persuade learners to practice healthy diet. Also, School
Management Teams (SMTs) and School Governing Bodies (SGBs) should play their
role in emphasizing the importance of Food-Based Dietary Guidelines in schools.
Future interventions are therefore encouraged to include a moderate intensity
intervention by trained professionals and feasibility of involving educators, SGBs and
SMTs, particularly in policy adherence. Therefore, this study proposed a healthy food
intervention strategy incorporating the Theory of Planned Behaviour in order to justify
the knowledge, attitude and practices of children in healthy diet. Intervention should
adopt the Training Partnership Model wherein children, parents, educators are trained
by health professional on adherence to healthy diet. / Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (VLIR)
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ul/oai:ulspace.ul.ac.za:10386/3765 |
Date | January 2019 |
Creators | Modjadji, Shapul Edith Ladygay |
Contributors | Themane, M.J., Valcke, M. |
Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Thesis |
Format | ix, 119 leaves |
Relation |
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