Eating Habits and Social Behavior in Korean Preschool Children

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the eating habits and social behavior of preschool children. Six hundred twenty seven children ranging in age from 4 to 7 and their mothers were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing the children''''s eating habits and kindergarten teachers were asked to rate the social behavior of their preschool children. The eating habits of children positively correlated to those of their mothers, primarily in meal regularity, breakfast frequency, unbalanced meals, overeating, eating delivery food and food preferences. The results showed that 33% of preschool children always had unbalanced meals and 50% sometimes had them. Children who had ice cream, cake, carbonated drinks or cookies as snacks more often, tend to have meals irregularly because they favored sweets and were possibly induced to have unbalanced meals. Sixty five percent of the children were graded as good in terms of having healthy eating habits and had good social behavior. The results indicate that the eating habits of children are related to problem behavior, especially social withdrawal and anxiety. That is, children who have undesirable eating habits are likely to be anxious or socially withdrawn.