The resolution of the national programme of nutrition policy in Slovenia sets out measures and activities for improving nutritional habits of Slovenian citizens. One of the strategic goals of healthy nutrition of children and young persons is to develop healthy nutrition habits. To improve healthy life styles of people, one of the activities for promoting healthy nutrition is also reshaping educational contents in school curricula.
Nutrition education which is carried out in various forms of formal and informal education can significantly change nutrition behaviour and change dietary habits of children. Thus, for those who receive compulsory formal education bringing topics on nutrition into elementary school curricula can contribute to forming healthy life styles of children and young persons.
The curriculum of nine-year elementary schools includes various topics on nutrition, which are mainly offered through science subjects. Thus for instance, the syllabi for the compulsory subject of Home economics and elective subjects Modern ways of food preparation, and Nutrition which are given in the third triad of nine-year elementary schools provide numerous teaching topics for achieving knowledge standards for acquiring skills and knowledge in nutrition. The course in nutrition is most intense in the 6th grade of schooling and is given within the Home economics subject.
Most studies in which the researchers analysed the impact of nutrition education on nutrition behaviour of children have been concerned with the analysis of the effects of nutrition education and were targeted at specific populations and educational contents. Persons who undergo the process of informal education are usually internally motivated which consequently has positive effects on the outcome of education. On the other hand, in compulsory formal education through which all children must go through, we are dealing with different levels of motivation and children have already developed certain nutrition behaviour and dietary habits which come as a result of biological and internal and external psychological and social factors.
The purpose of our research was to analyse nutritional habits of 6th graders (eleven-year-old school children) who attended home economics courses in the school year 2006/2007 and to find out the level of knowledge, children’s opinions and attitudes on healthy nutrition before and after the completion of the formal compulsory course. By analysing variables at the beginning and at the end of education we could measure and analyse the impact of nutrition education on the knowledge of children, and observe changes of nutrition habits and attitudes of children. By determining the level of changes of individual variables due to nutrition education allowed for critical evaluation of the impact of nutrition education on nutrition behaviour of children. Part of the study was devoted to analysing teachers' attitudes in teaching healthy nutrition and analysing how their attitudes influence nutrition behaviour of children.
It was found out that, statistically, the knowledge of children significantly improved after they have gone through the process of education. Better progress was observed among children with the lowest level of knowledge at the beginning of courses. On the other hand, children, who demonstrated better knowledge prior to education, did not make much progress. The analysis of knowledge showed that children know the basic principles of healthy nutrition which they have already acquired at lower levels of education. Considering how nutrition topics are presented in home economics courses, we can conclude that home economics mainly focuses on acquiring skills and less on acquiring theoretical knowledge. In nutrition education, sixth graders of elementary
schools are faced with concepts which, according to their level of cognitive development, are too difficult to understand and this may have resulted in their knowledge. For example, to understand the role of nutrients, or topics related to energy values of food, children need to employ abstract and hypothetical mind operations which may be very demanding for this age. We did not find any statistically significant differences in the knowledge between boys and girls, however, larger differences may be expected in higher grades of elementary school.
We analysed the impact of nutrition education on nutritional habits of children based on the frequency of taken meals and the selection of food products to find out that before and after education there were no statistically significant changes in taking meals. The relationship between the acquired knowledge which was the result of education and frequency of taking meals is positive, however negligible. Based on the results we can conclude that education had no significant effects on taking meals. Neither sex, or nutrition knowledge made any difference in terms of frequency of taking meals, however there is a noticeable difference in that pupils with better knowledge in nutrition take meals more frequently than those with poorer nutritional knowledge.
The analysis of frequency of taking meals which are categorised as fast food (e.g. sandwiches, pizza, fried chips, hamburgers) has shown that more boys than girls, as well as children with poor nutritional knowledge, tend to consume this kind of food more frequently. From the results we can infer that nutrition knowledge does have effects on the frequency of taking fast food. Nutritional education did not have any effects on the frequency of taking meals classified as fast food, which means that before and after the completion of education nutritional habits did not change.
Nutrition behaviour of children was determined by analysing the frequency of taking individual food products. We found out that boys more frequently consume food products that are listed as less recommended according to health dietary recommendations. We also found correlation between nutrition behaviour and nutrition knowledge: children with poor knowledge in nutrition more frequently consume less recommended food products than children with good nutrition knowledge.
No strong correlation was found between the acquired knowledge after the educational process and nutrition behaviour, which means that education did not have any marked impact on nutrition behaviour of children.
The formation of nutrition attitudes and habits of children greatly depends on the attitudes of parents and peers. The children involved in this study reflected the picture of the attitudes of their parents towards healthy diets, and clearly expressed that parents would buy food products that are recommended as healthy. This finding indicates that children could develop healthy eating habits if they develop a desire for eating healthy food. We presume that children like eating food with a known taste, and that the sensoric properties of food correspond with their desires and habits.
In our study the children assessed their own nutrition knowledge as good. If we compare their opinions before and after the school year we can see that statistically their opinion was more positive at the end of the year which indicates that they have acquired some knowledge and noticed a progress in nutritional education.
Children with better knowledge in nutrition have more positive opinion about their own nutrition. In comparison with those with poorer nutrition knowledge, these children show higher awareness of healthy nutrition, their environments offer better chances for healthy nutrition, and children are well acquainted with the principles of healthy eating. This high level of conviction and confidence in their own nutrition knowledge, as well as confidence in the knowledge they have acquired, is positively reflected in their self image which has a motivational function in forming a positive attitude towards healthy eating.
We also found out that children trust the encouragements for healthy eating. Girls, and those children with better nutrition knowledge expressed a higher level of trust than the boys, or the children with poor nutrition knowledge. Correlations between the acquired nutrition knowledge and their opinions about healthy eating show a very small but positive link. This means that nutrition education has not had any significant impacts on their attitudes.
Part of our research was also devoted to children's intentions to change dietary habits. Girls expressed a higher level of intention to change dietary habits than boys, however, education and knowledge did not influence their intentions. The most frequently expressed desire for changes was to introduce more fruit, and less frequently the desire to reduce sweets or sweet fuzzy drinks. We found out that children would change their opinion upon the advice of doctors or parents, and would less frequently follow the advice of teachers, peers or friends.
In our study we proved that children acquire nutrition knowledge during the process of education, while our hypothesis that nutrition knowledge would influence changes in their opinion and intentions for changing their nutrition behaviour was disproved. The formation of children nutrition behaviour depends on many factors. According to the results of our research we can infer that nutrition knowledge acquired through formal education has no direct impact on nutrition behaviour, however, it may influence some other factors which indirectly influence their behaviour. Family environment remains the main factor which can change nutrition behaviour of children. Taking into consideration the reports of previous studies we can infer that social and economic status of families, coupled with the level of education of parents, influences nutrition knowledge, as well as nutrition behaviour of children. We assume that family environments from which our children come from greatly influence their knowledge and nutrition behaviour.
Nutrition education in nine-year elementary schools needs to be provided for different age levels and needs to be adapted to the cognitive development of children. Continuous education should be carefully planned and permanently upgraded using interdisciplinary and constructivist approach which would allow for the development of process knowledge, necessary for critical evaluation of person’s own nutrition behaviour.
Children need to be constantly encouraged to take healthy food, meaning that suitable environment needs to be provided. Teachers, responsible for conveying nutrition knowledge, can significantly contribute to the implementation of teaching goals by giving their own example and expressing positive towards healthy nutrition.
Equipped with good nutrition knowledge, children will be able to develop suitable and good quality life styles that will consequently lead to taking responsibility for continuous personal development and development of the society as a whole.