Journal of Behavioral Health and Psychology. 2012;
1(1):(1-322)
Nutritional habits in a primary school children: generational and gender differences
Maria Luisa E. Luisi, Raffaele Molino Lova, Luisa Bertulli, Francesco Sofi, Angelo Pietrobelli, Rosanna Intini, Claudio Macchi, Barbara Biffi, GianFranco Gensini
Abstract
The role of healthy diet as an effective tool to prevent chronic diseases is well established.
Recently, most of the attention has been paid to food education since childhood. Aim of the
present study was to evaluate generational and gender differences in perceiving the
importance of healthy diet in a sample of subjects ranging from children to their grandparents.
We studied 226 subjects, 74 children attending a primary school, 82 parents and 70
grandparents. Children received the Food Frequency Questionnaire and two “ad hoc”
questionnaires, the former about general principles of food education and the latter about
perception of the importance of healthy diet and the personal engagement to pursue it, while
parents and grandparents received only this latter questionnaire. Both boys and girls reported
to have little information on the different types of fats and which fats are harmful for their
health. With regard to females, mothers’ engagement to pursue a healthy diet was significantly
higher than that of grandmothers, while girls’ engagement did not exceed the already high
engagement of their mothers. Regarding males, the engagement followed a similar increase
across generations, without significant differences. However, despite different courses, no
significant gender difference was detected within the new generation. This finding seems to be
of extreme importance for all the professionals involved in food educational programs for
childhood.
