An assessment of middle school children's knowledge and attitudes of nutrition and their effects on eating behaviors

Middle school children in a northeastern city in the United States were surveyed to assess their nutrition knowledge and attitudes. Basic eating behaviors, specifically the number of meals eaten, were recorded and evaluated based on gender, nutritional knowledge, and attitudes toward nutrition. In this pilot study, children were asked about their beliefs about different foods for their nutritional value, their positive or negative attitudes about the food, their intentions of eating these foods, and what meals they ate or skipped. The results showed attitudes were significantly related with intentions, and nutritional beliefs were marginally related with attitudes, and, intentions were marginally related to meals eaten. In addition, the study revealed that girls skip breakfast significantly more often on weekdays than boys, but that the opposite occurs on the weekend when boys skip breakfast significantly more often than girls.