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Development of a scale to measure 9–11-year-olds' attitudes towards breakfast

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 62, pages 511–518 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

Development and validation of a questionnaire to measure children's attitudes towards breakfast.

Design:

A pilot study was used to select questionnaire items and assess test–retest reliability. The questionnaire was then administered to a larger sample of children together with a dietary recall questionnaire. Randomly selected subsets of these children also completed a dietary recall interview or their parents were asked to complete a questionnaire relating to their child's breakfast eating habits.

Setting:

Primary schools in south, west and north Wales, UK.

Subjects:

A total of 2495 children (199 in pilot testing, 2382 in the main study) in years 5 and 6 (aged 9–11 years).

Results:

The 13-item scale showed good construct validity, high internal reliability and acceptable test–retest reliability. Boys displayed more positive attitudes towards breakfast than girls but differences between the two age groups did not reach statistical significance. Children who did not skip breakfast displayed more positive attitudes than children who skipped breakfast. In addition, more positive attitudes towards breakfast were significantly correlated with consumption of a greater number of ‘healthy’ foods for breakfast (i.e., fruit, bread, cereal, milk products), consumption of fewer ‘unhealthy’ foods for breakfast (i.e., sweet items, crisps) and parental perceptions that their child usually ate a healthy breakfast.

Conclusions:

The breakfast attitudes questionnaire is a robust measure that is relatively quick to administer and simple to score. These qualities make it ideal for use where validity at the individual level is important or where more time-consuming dietary measures are not feasible.

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Acknowledgements

Laurence Moore is supported by a Public Health Career Scientist Award funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. We thank Emily Harrop, Lorelei Simon, Iolo Madoc-Jones, Julian Buchanon and Joan Ashdown-Lambert for help with data collection, Zoe Macdonald for administrative assistance and Odette Parry for contributions to project management and data collection. We also thank the members of our advisory group (Andrew Smith, Rona Campbell, Barrie Margetts and Ian Shemilt), Janine Hale and Ruth Conway for their continued support and assistance and the Welsh Assembly Government for funding the research. In addition, we gratefully acknowledge the co-operation of all school staff, pupils and parents for participating in this study. The research was funded by the Health Promotion Division of the Welsh Assembly Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiff Institute of Society, Health and Ethics, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    K Tapper, S Murphy, R Lynch, R Clark, G F Moore & L Moore

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  1. K Tapper
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  2. S Murphy
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  3. R Lynch
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  4. R Clark
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  5. G F Moore
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Correspondence to K Tapper.

Additional information

Guarantor: K Tapper. Contributors: KT, SM, LM, RC and RL developed and piloted the attitude, dietary and parental measures. RC, GM and KT developed the dietary coding scheme. KT and GM carried out the statistical analysis. KT drafted the paper and all authors contributed to the final paper.

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Tapper, K., Murphy, S., Lynch, R. et al. Development of a scale to measure 9–11-year-olds' attitudes towards breakfast. Eur J Clin Nutr 62, 511–518 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602735

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