The current prevalence of childhood obesity is becoming a critical social problem and cannot be solved effectively by any single solution. An underlying problem of interventions trying to prevent childhood obesity neglects children's own understanding of food, an important determinant for healthy eating habits. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the influences of age, family socio-economic status (SES), and parents' food knowledge on preschool, kindergarten, and second-grade children's conceptual understanding of food. Fifty-two American parent-child dyads, 17 preschoolers, 17 kindergarteners, and 18 second graders, with different SES family backgrounds participated in this study. Parents completed a self-administrated survey at home and their children were interviewed by a researcher assistant at their school sites. Quantitative results suggested significant age influences on children's conceptual understanding of food. Significant differences were found in total food knowledge between preschool children and children in second grade. Significant differences were also found in food-body and food-fat knowledge between children from preschool and second grade, and between children from kindergarten and second grade. SES family background had no significant impact on children's conceptual understanding of food. No clear correlation was found for food knowledge between children and their parents. Qualitative results indicated children are aware of whether foods are healthy or not healthy, fruit and vegetable. They conceptualize the meals and snacks using portion size and associated food examples. Variations in children's conceptual understanding of food suggested that a nutrition education curriculum for young children should be age specific. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 24, 2013. / age-related understanding of food, children's cognitive development,
children's understanding of food, socio-economic status (SES) related food
concepts / Includes bibliographical references. / Ithel Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Schwartz, University Representative; Diana Rice, Committee Member; Thomas Ratliffe, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_253375 |
| Contributors | Xu, Tingting (authoraut), Jones, Ithel (professor directing dissertation), Schwartz, Robert A. (university representative), Rice, Diana (committee member), Ratliffe, Thomas (committee member), School of Teacher Education (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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