An evaluation of the effects of breakfast on classroom behaviours in Jamaican schoolchildren - abstract

ABSTRACT

Children's behaviours may be affected by short-term food deprivation, and this may hinder their ability to learn in class. However, there are few adequate evaluations of the effect of nutrition on classroom behaviour in Jamaica. We evaluated the effects of giving breakfast on the classroom behaviours of 50 undernourished and 60 adequately nourished children aged 8-11 years, selected from 4 poor rural schools. The children were observed twice, once after receiving breakfast and once after a placebo. The behaviours were observed in teaching and set task situations and included attention to task, talking to another child, gross motor behaviour and responding to teacher. A time sampling method was used. This technique estimates the number of times actual behaviours occur. The test retest reliabilities ranged from 0.6 to 0.9 (Spearman-Brown coefficient). The undernourished children moved around the classroom more than the adequately nourished children. The impact of breakfast varied among the schools but not between nutritional groups. In the school which was better equipped and organized, the children were more attentive (p<0.01) and moved less (p<0.05) when they received breakfast. In the poorer schools there was no improvement and, in one, the children's attention to task was less when given breakfast (p<0.02). School breakfasts may therefore only benefit children's behaviours in the presence of satisfactory classroom infrastructure (AU)