Food consumption behavior of pre-school children whose parents working in other places

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine food consumption behavior
of pre-school children whose parents working in other places in Muang District,
Chiangrai Province. Eighty-six children (3-6 years old) were purposively selected from 10
Child development centers in Muang district, Chiangrai. The study instrument included
demographic characteristics and food consumption behavior by interviewing children
guardians. The content validity index was 0.87 and reliability was 0.90 using Cronbach’s
alpha coefficient. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics which are mean and
percentile. The results show that the average age was 4.2 years and that the subjects
had three meals a day with with home-cooked, breakfast and dinners at home with
family and lunch provide by the Child Development Center. In addition, 93.0% of
them had snacks every day, 86.0% bought the snacks by themselves and 55.8% spent
between 10 - 15 baht per day for snacks and drinks. Popular types of snacks and drinks
purchased were crispy snacks with seasoning, ice cream / sweet ice, candy and sweet
drink/carbonated drink were 55.8%, 10.5%, 8.1% and 8.1%, respectively. Fresh milk,
sweet milk and soy milk were not purchased. The places of purchase were shops / stalls
in the village and shops / stalls around the nursery were 47.7% and 46.5%, respectively.
The reasons used to buy snacks and drinks were the delicious taste and premium giveaway
offers.