Parental nutrition knowledge and attitudes as predictors of 5–6-year-old children's healthy food knowledge

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Abstract
Objective: Young children's knowledge about healthy food may influence the formation of their eating behaviours, and parents have a major influence on the development of children's knowledge in the early years.Design: We investigated the extent to which parental nutrition knowledge and attitudes around food predicted young children's knowledge of healthy foods, controlling for other influences such as socio-economic status (SES) and parent education levels in a cross-sectional research design. Children were given a healthy food knowledge activity and parents completed questionnaires.Setting: Twenty primary schools in Adelaide, Australia, stratified by SES.Subjects: We recruited 192 children aged 5–6 years and their parents.Results: Structural equation modelling showed that parent nutrition knowledge predicted children's nutrition knowledge (r= 0·30,P< 0·001) independently of attitudes, SES and education level.Conclusions: Nutrition education for parents, targeted at low-SES areas at higher risk for obesity, may contribute to the development of healthy food knowledge in young children.

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