title: Impact of a school-based cooking curriculum for fourth-grade students on attitudes and behaviors is influenced by gender and prior cooking experience.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare effects of the Cooking With Kids (CWK) cooking and tasting curriculum (CWK-CT) with a less-intense, tasting-only curriculum (CWK-T) and to conduct a non-treatment comparison on fourth graders' cooking self-efficacy (SE), cooking attitudes (AT), and fruit and vegetable preferences (FVP).
  
  
  METHODS
  Pre-post, quasi-experimental, 2 cohorts.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven low-income public schools in a Southwestern city.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fourth-grade students, 50% female and 84% Hispanic.
  
  
  METHODS
  School-based experiential nutrition education program of 5 2-hour cooking and/or 5 1-hour fruit and vegetable tasting lessons throughout the school year.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cooking self-efficacy, AT, and FVP were assessed with 3 tested, validated scales administered in a 37-item survey pre- and post-classroom intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  General linear modeling with gender and prior cooking experience were fixed factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 961 students, CWK positively affected FVP, especially in CWK-CT students and males (P = .045 and .033, respectively); vegetable preference drove this outcome. Independent of treatment, students without cooking experience (61% male) had more than twice the gains in cooking self-efficacy (P = .004) and an improved AT response (P = .003).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cooking With Kids increased FVP, especially with vegetables. Greatest gains in preferences and self-efficacy were seen in boys without prior cooking experience. For fourth graders, experiential nutrition education improved cognitive behaviors that may mediate healthful food choices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. Electronic address: Leslie.Cunningham-Sabo@Colostate.Edu.
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cunningham-Sabo
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lohse
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D053198:Child Nutrition Sciences / Q000379:methods*; D003296:Cooking; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014675:Vegetables
keywords: attitude; child; cooking; food preferences; fruits, vegetables; nutrition education; nutrition survey; self-efficacy