Associations between Japanese schoolchildren’s involvement in at-home meal preparation, their food intakes, and cooking skills

This 2016 study examined the extent to which Japanese school children are involved in at-home meal preparation by surveying fifth-grade children and one of their parents. The goal of the study was to investigate the association between the children’s involvement in the food preparation process with their level of food intake and cooking skills. Nozue et al. developed 3 categories for child participation in at-home meal preparation. Firstly, cooking only/coupled with one other activity such as shopping, setting the table, cleaning up, or washing the dishes was classed as “food-related activities”. While “non-food-related activities” included setting the table and/or cleaning up, and not helping at all was defined as “no”. Among the 1207 child participants, those who did not help at all (in the “no” group) ate fewer vegetables than those in the food-related activities group. Additionally, fewer children in the non-food-related activities group could construct a portion of their meals, compared with the food-related activities group. This study found that Japanese school children who reported at least cooking showed better eating behaviors and cooking skills than children who only did non-food-related activities and those who did not help at all in the meal preparation process. [NPID: school children, Japan, Japanese, meal prep, food preparation, children, child participation, food activities, cooking, cooking skills]

Year: 2016

Reference: Nozue, M., Ishida, H., Hazano, S., Nakanishi, A., Yamamoto, T., Abe, A., Nishi, N., Yokoyama, T., & Murayama, N. (2016). Associations between Japanese schoolchildren's involvement in at-home meal preparation, their food intakes, and cooking skills. Nutrition research and practice, 10(3), 359–363. https://doi.org/10.4162/nrp.2016.10.3.359