Nutrition and Cognitive Achievement: An Evaluation of the School Breakfast Program.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Frisvold DE
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4408552 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Nutrition and Cognitive Achievement: An Evaluation of the School Breakfast Program.
Journal of public economics 20150401
This paper investigates the impact of the School Breakfast Program (SBP) on cognitive achievement. The SBP is a federal entitlement program that offers breakfast to any student, including free breakfast for any low-income student, who attends a school that participates in the program. To increase the availability of the SBP, many states mandate that schools participate in the program if the percent of free or reduced-price eligible students in a school exceeds a specific threshold. Using the det ...[more]
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Project description:India has the world's highest number of undernourished children and the largest school feeding program, the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme. As school feeding programs target children outside the highest-return "first 1000-days" window, they have not been included in the global agenda to address stunting. School meals benefit education and nutrition in participants, but no studies have examined whether benefits carry over to their children. Using nationally representative data on mothers and their children spanning 1993 to 2016, we assess whether MDM supports intergenerational improvements in child linear growth. Here we report that height-for-age z-score (HAZ) among children born to mothers with full MDM exposure was greater (+0.40 SD) than that in children born to non-exposed mothers. Associations were stronger in low socioeconomic strata and likely work through women's education, fertility, and health service utilization. MDM was associated with 13-32% of the HAZ improvement in India from 2006 to 2016.
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Project description:ObjectiveResearch on the consequences of breakfast skipping among students tends to focus on academic outcomes, rather than student well-being or engagement at school. This study investigated the association between breakfast skipping and cognitive and emotional aspects of school engagement.DesignCross-sectional study using data from a population-level survey of children and adolescents' well-being and engagement at school. Linear regression with adjustment for confounders was used to estimate the effect of breakfast skipping on school engagement.SettingGovernment schools (i.e. public schools) in South Australia.ParticipantsThe participants were students, Grades 4-12, who completed the Wellbeing and Engagement Collection in 2019. The analysis sample included 61 825 students.ResultsApproximately 9·6 % of students reported always skipping breakfast, with 35·4 % sometimes skipping and 55·0 % never skipping. In the adjusted linear regression models, children and adolescents who always skipped breakfast reported lower levels of cognitive engagement (β = -0·26 (95 % CI -0·29, -0·25)), engagement with teachers (β = -0·17 (95 % CI -0·18, -0·15)) and school climate (β = -0·17 (95 % CI -0·19, -0·15)) compared with those who never skipped breakfast, after controlling for age, gender, health, sleep, sadness and worries, parental education, socio-economic status and geographical remoteness.ConclusionConsistent with our hypothesis, skipping breakfast was associated with lower cognitive and emotional engagement, which could be due to mechanisms such as short-term energy supply and long-term health impacts. Therefore, decreasing the prevalence of breakfast skipping could have a positive impact on school engagement.
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Project description:ObjectiveUse Normalization Process Theory to evaluate the implementation and integration of the expanded School Breakfast Program (SBP).DesignInterviews were conducted during the 2014-2015 school year. Normalization Process Theory guided the interview questions.SettingRural high schools in Minnesota.ParticipantsInterviews were conducted with 12 foodservice directors and 11 principals from the Project Break-Fueling Academics and Strengthening Teens intervention. Four of the 12 schools were in their first year of providing the expanded SBP program to their students whereas 8 were in their second year.Phenomenon of interestNormalization Process Theory was used to evaluate the implementation and integration of the expanded SBP into rural Midwestern high schools.AnalysisThree members of the research team used NVivo 10 software to code and analyze the interviews. Emerged themes were reported.ResultsModifying the SBP aligned with values of the study participants (coherence). Support was obtained from staff, students, and community members (cognitive participation). Operational work occurred in each school to establish and integrate the modified SBP (collective action). The SBP expansion was assessed through student participation rates (reflexive monitoring).Conclusions and implicationsNormalization Process Theory can be used to evaluate the implementation, embedding, and integration of a modified SBP into a school program. This evaluation can support other schools in modifying and embedding their SBPs into their school environment.
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