ERIC Number: EJ1220604
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Jun
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1836-9391
EISSN: N/A
Supporting Children to Act as Change Agents for Parents in Preparing Their Lunch Box
Jakobovich, Ronit; Shoval, Ella; Berry, Elliot M.; Shulruf, Boaz
Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, v44 n2 p153-165 Jun 2019
This study aims to examine the effects of an intervention model, "Change Nutrition by Doing," in which children act as agents of change -- by 'doing' -- in taking responsibility for the contents of the lunch box they bring from home to consume at an early childhood centre. This quasi-randomised case-control trial consisted of 35 Israeli kindergartens whose teachers were participating in an in-service training programme of an intervention model for improving children's healthy nutritional behaviour. The control group consisted of 26 kindergartens whose teachers were participating in other in-service training programmes. The intervention model ran for eight months. The quality of the contents of the children's lunch box in the experimental groups was measured pre- and post-intervention through structured observations that yielded standardised scores. Mann-Whitney U Test for independent samples (at the kindergarten level) was employed to compare the change in lunch-box content across the controls. The results showed that in all the variables the difference between the intervention and the control kindergartens was significant, p< 0.002. It was concluded that the intervention had a significant positive impact on the content of the lunch boxes. This study shows the potential of supporting children to be change agents at home. In the future, there should be a follow-up of the family's perseverance of the acquired habit.
Descriptors: Nutrition, Intervention, Change Agents, Kindergarten, Young Children, Preschool Teachers, Food, Student Participation, Inservice Teacher Education, Foreign Countries, Parent Participation, Knowledge Level, Eating Habits, Socioeconomic Status, Age Differences, Gender Differences, Program Effectiveness
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Israel
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A