Study of Dietary Attitudes and Diet Management of Married Immigrant Women in Korea according to Residence Period

The purpose of this study was to examine the dietary attitudes and meal management of married immigrant women according to residence period in Korea. The study was conducted by administering a questionnaire survey to 220 married immigrant women in Korea. More than one third of the immigrant women who stayed in Korea less than 3 years tended to eat a limited variety of foods. Irregularity of meal time decreased as residence time period increased (P<0.05). As immigrant women stayed longer in Korea, they became more responsible for the diet of their family (P<0.001) and had more time to share breakfast and dinner with all family members (P<0.05). Nearly half of immigrant women in all residence periods indicated their husband's family as the most influential factor in acquiring Korean foods (P<0.05). Immigrant women became more familiar with Korean cooking and recognition of nutritious foods (P<0.001) the longer they lived in Korea and more enjoyable meal times with family (P<0.05). In summary, as the period of residence in Korea increased, the dietary attitudes of immigrant women became more positive towards Korean food and diet culture. Further, immigrant women became more responsible for guiding children's dietary habits and offering healthy foods to their family as residence period increased. Therefore, the government and social programs should conduct constant and organized lessons on Korean culture and cooking according to residence period for immigrant women to build up stable and positive dietary attitudes.

The Comparisons of Elementary School Children's Food Purchasing and Consumer Competency for a Healthier Diet by Their Attitude toward the Meal Management

In this study elementary school children's food purchasing and consumer competency for a healthier diet were compared by their attitude toward the meal management. The subjects were 779 sixth grade elementary school children (417 boys and 362 girls) in Busan. They were classified into three groups: 'High' was composed of 226 subjects who had more than the mean +1/2 SD of attitude toward the meal management; 'Medium' was composed of 343 subjects who had the mean +/-1/2 SD; and 'Low' was composed of 210 subjects who had the less than the mean -1/2 SD. The results were as follows. The high group had less pocket money than the low group, and thought that their allowances were adequate to their needs. They also had a habit of entering amounts into an account book. The children in the low group purchased mostly snacks without making or practicing a budget. The high group purchased yogurt, fruit, or bread as snacks more frequently than the low group. More children checked the nutrient facts on the package in high group than in the low group. There were no significant differences in the consumer's knowledge of a healthy diet among the groups; but there were significant differences in the consumer's skill, and the consumer's attitude toward a healthy diet among the groups. The high group had higher skills and more positive attitudes than the low group. This research suggests that education can elevate interest and can help develop more positive attitudes toward healthy diets among children. The education can help them to develop planned food purchasing habits, and improve their consumer competency for a healthy diet.

A Survey on the Status of the Meal Management Behaviors of Housewives Living in the Apartments of Jinju / 대한지역사회영양학회지

This study was carried out to evaluate meal management behavior of housewives and to improve their behavior by determining what problems exist. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire in Jinju from October to November in 1999. It was shown that 29.1% of housewives didn't plan food budget, whereas only 5.6% of them did. The reasons for not planning food budget were mostly due to not forming a habit(38.8%), irregularity of prices(19.9%) or irregularity of income(13.8%). The characters of planning food budget and the reasons for not planning were not affected by age, education, monthly income, family size or monthly flood cost. Only 17.8% of meal managers recorded their housekeeping in detail and 47.4% of them wrote only the important things. Recording housekeeping records was affected by age and education. It was found that most meal managers(90.8%) didn't set menu planning and they didn't fuel the need for menu planning. The frequency of food shopping was every two days(36.2%), twice a week(20.9%) or randomly(27.4%), and the places for food shopping were supermarket(49.0%) and traditional market(41.3%). Both were affected by education or age. The quality of food was the main reason(54.6%) far the selection of food shopping place. Important consideration for selection of food and meals was preference of family(47.4%) and this character was affected by education. It was shown that the score of nutrition knowledge was 7.36, and it was affected by education. The results of this study suggest that the government, educators and scientists in nutrition make efforts to develop various levels of practical education programs for meal management and nutrition depending on age, education and community using mass media.