The Effect of Parent Involvement in a Nutrition Education Program for Primary Grade Pupils

Three schools were matched for socioeconomic data, location, and quality. Students in kindergarten through grade three in two schools received nutrition education; the third school was the control. Of the two treatment schools, one was randomly assigned to receive parent as well as student education in nutrition. Three-hundred and seventy cognitive scores, 168 affective scores, and 100 plate-waste analyses were collected in both pretest and posttest phases. At the end of the fourmonth treatment period, 24-hour food frequency recalls were collected for 151 children. Students at the school where both parents and their children were involved had higher dietary quality scores and were eating a wider variety of food compared to students in either of the other two schools. Cognitive scores for kindergarten and first grade students were significantly higher for children in the school with parent involvement. The results substantiate the importance of a parent education component in achieving a positive effect in food behavior as a result of a nutrition education program