Food as a reward in the classroom: school district policies are associated with practices in US public elementary schools.
The use of food as a reward for good student behavior or academic performance is discouraged by many national organizations, yet this practice continues to occur in schools. Our multiyear cross-sectional study examined the use of food as a reward in elementary schools and evaluated the association between district policies and school practices. School data were gathered during the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 school years via mail-back surveys (N=2,069) from respondents at nationally representative samples of US public elementary schools (1,525 unique schools, 544 of which also participated for a second year). During every year, the corresponding district policy for each school was gathered and coded for provisions pertaining to the use of food as a reward. School practices did not change over time and as of the 2009-2010 school year, respondents in 42.1% and 40.7% of schools, respectively, indicated that food was not used as a reward for academic performance or for good student behavior. In multivariate logistic regression analyses controlling for school characteristics and year, having a district policy that prohibited the use of food as a reward was significantly associated with school respondents reporting that food was not used as a reward for academic performance (P<0.05) or for good student behavior (P<0.05). School-level respondents in the West and the Midwest were less likely to report that food was not used as a reward than were respondents in the South and Northeast. As of 2009-2010, only 11.9% of the districts in our study prohibited the use of food as a reward. Strengthening district policies may reduce the use of food rewards in elementary schools.
Lindsey
L
Turner
Jamie F
JF
Chriqui
Frank J
FJ
Chaloupka
D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D009111:Local Government; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D018673:Nutrition Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control; D011050:Policy Making; D012201:Reward; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States