5～9-year-old children's understanding of food and nutrition / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate children' s understanding of food,nutrition and its relation to health.Methods Participants were interviewed individually,various experimental tasks were used to explore 5-9 year old children' s spontaneous classification of familiar food and their understanding of food balance.Results Five-year-old children rely more than elders on physical cues.There was significant age difference of their criterion of classification among physical (H_((2))=12.929,P ＜ 0.01),conventional (H_((2))=5.540,P=0.063)land processing criterion(H_((2))=6.076,P＜ 0.05).There was significant SES difference of their choices(X_((1))~2=5.857,P=0.016 ; X_((1))~2=4.510,P=0.034 in two different tasks).Higher SES children tended to choose balanced food(percentage of choosing balanced food in higher SES group was 75.0% ,93.8% ;45.2% ,74.2% in lower SES group).Conclusion The criterion children used is related to their cognitive development and experience.As they become older,more and more children realize the nutritional value of foods.There were a significant age difference in nutrition-balanced food choice ,and children's social economic status influence their performance.