홍진희1, 오수경2, 정자용2

1경희대학교 교육대학원 영양교육전공, 2경희대학교 생활과학대학 식품영양학과

Background: The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship of unbalanced diet habits and eating
behaviors between school age children and their mothers.
Methods: From the Wonju area of Gangwon-do, 232 children and their mothers were recruited for this study.
General characteristics, degree of unbalanced diet, eating behaviors, factors associated with food preferences,
food preferences, and food intake frequencies were obtained through a questionnaire.
Results: The degree of unbalanced diet habits were significantly correlated between school age children and
their mothers. Children's eating behaviors were also highly affected by their mother's eating behaviors.
Especially, the frequency of eating breakfast showed a significant correlation between children and mothers.
Among the factors associated with food preferences, family eating habits, appetite, and emotions showed significant
associations between girls and mothers. As for food preferences, preference for meat in children was
not significantly associated with that in their mothers, whereas preference for perilla oil and butter was significantly
associated with preference in their mothers. The relationship of food preferences between children
and mothers differed according to the sex of the children. Further, the intake frequencies for most foods were
highly correlated between children and mothers.
Conclusions: Our study showed that the unbalanced diet habits and eating behaviors of mothers can affect
those in their children. Moreover, the correlations of food preferences between children and their mothers were
different depending on the sex of the children. Our data suggest that educating mothers about their diet and
eating behaviors could improve the eating practices of their children.
Korean J Health Promot 2014;14(1):17-25
Keywords: Unbalanced diet, Eating behavior, Food preference, Mothers, Child