Which fourth-grade children participate in school breakfast and do their parents know it?
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.
Guinn
Caroline H
CH
Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Prevention Institute, Augusta, Georgia 30912-3710, USA. cguinn@mail.mcg.edu
Baxter
Suzanne Domel
SD
Thompson
William O
WO
Frye
Francesca H A
FH
Kopec
Candace T
CT
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