Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of children's breakfast skipping and their mothers' needs for breakfast service at child care centers. A survey was conducted with mothers of children aged 3 to 5 years and attending child care centers in Gwanak-gu, Seoul. Out of 960 questionnaires distributed to the caregivers at 32 child care centers, 633 were returned (66% response rate), and 449 were analyzed (47% analysis rate) after excluding data from the respondents not meeting the selection criteria for this study: mothers of children aged 3 to 5 years. Over 2/3 (69%) of children ate breakfast every weekday (Breakfast Eaters) and almost 1/3 (31%) of children skipped breakfast one time or more often on weekdays (Breakfast Skippers). The collected data were compared between Breakfast Eaters and Breakfast Skippers. The average Good Dietary Practice Score of Breakfast Skippers was significantly lower than that of Breakfast Eaters, implying poorer dietary habits. A higher percentage of mothers of Breakfast Skippers (62%) responded that breakfast service was 'necessary' or 'very necessary' at child care centers than those of Breakfast Eaters (27%). A multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine factors affecting mothers' needs for breakfast service at child care centers. The result showed that the children's ages, mothers' occupational status, household monthly income, frequencies of eating breakfast on weekdays and satisfaction level with morning snack provided at child care centers affected mothers' needs for breakfast service at child care centers. In particular, mothers who had a full-time job (OR = 2.06) than housewives, mothers whose children did not eat breakfast at al (OR = 3.54), ate 1~2 times (OR = 5.50) or ate 3~4 times (OR = 3.80) on weekdays than those whose children ate breakfast every weekday were more likely to have needs for breakfast service at child care centers than housewives. In conclusion, Breakfast Skippers tended to have poorer dietary habits than Breakfast Eaters and Full-time working mothers had higher needs for breakfast service at child care centers. This study results suggest that child care centers consider serving breakfast to children as the number of working mothers increases.

• Keywords: breakfast skipping; child care center; breakfast service; multiple logistic regression