title: Which fourth-grade children participate in school breakfast and do their parents know it?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore fourth-graders' school breakfast participation by gender and race (black, white) and examine the extent to which parents' responses to "Does this child usually eat school breakfast?" reflected their children's participation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parents answered "yes" or "no" to the questions printed on consent forms. Observers documented which children participated in school breakfast on 26 to 51 randomly selected days per school during 24 weeks in the 1999-2000 school year.
  
  
  METHODS
  357 children recruited from all 22 fourth-grade classes from 6 schools in 1 public school district.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participation rate, participation rate grouping [usually participated (>or=50% of days observed), did not usually participate (< 50% of days observed)].
  
  
  METHODS
  Komolgorov-Smirnov tests, McNemar's test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Median participation rate was 37.5% overall. Distribution of participation rates differed significantly by race (K-S test, P <.001) but not gender. There was a significant difference in the percentage of parents who said "yes" or "no" compared to children's usual participation grouping (McNemar test, P <.001). Of parents who said "yes," 66% of children usually participated; of parents who said "no," 92% of children did not usually participate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children, not parents, must be the source for learning about what children eat at school.
authors.affiliation: Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Prevention Institute, Augusta, Georgia 30912-3710, USA. cguinn@mail.mcg.edu
authors.forename: Caroline H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Guinn
authors.forename: Suzanne Domel
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Baxter
authors.forename: William O
authors.initials: WO
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Francesca H A
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Frye
authors.forename: Candace T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Kopec
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005522:Food Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012574:Schools; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data