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Eiyogakuzashi, 5(73), p. 195-203

DOI: 10.5264/eiyogakuzashi.73.195

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At-home Meal Preparation, Parental Affluence, and Frequency of Children Eating Meals with Family Members: A Cross-sectional Survey with Fifth-grade Children

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Objective: To investigate factors associated with at-home meal preparation and examine the relationships between at-home meal preparation, parental affluence, and the frequency with which fifth-grade children eat meals with family members.Methods: A cross-sectional survey using a self-reported questionnaire was conducted on fifth-grade children (aged 10~11 years) and their parents at 19 elementary schools in six cities across four prefectures in Japan. Chi-squared and Fisher’s exact tests were used to investigate at-home meal preparation according to the participants’ sex. Chi-squared tests were used to examine specific items for at-home meal preparation, parental affluence, and the frequency with which children ate meals with family members. Logistic regression models were used to determine the associations between at-home meal preparation factors, parents’ subjective availability (i.e., time available to prepare and eat meals with family), subjective economic affluence, and the frequency with which children ate breakfast and dinner with family members. Separate analyses were conducted for boys and girls.Results: More girls participated in cooking, table-setting, cleaning up, and dishwashing than boys did. Dishwashing was associated with parents’ subjective availability among both sexes. There was an association between table-setting and the frequency with which boys ate dinner with family members; there were also associations between shopping, dishwashing, and the frequency with which girls ate breakfast with family members.Conclusions: There are sex differences in fifth-grade children’s at-home meal preparation activities. Dishwashing and parents’ subjective availability were associated with the frequency with which both boys and girls ate meals with family members. The factor specific to boys was table-setting. Specific factors for girls were shopping and dishwashing.