The Influence Of Nutrition Education On Eating Behavior And Mental Health In Children Aged 7-8 Years

With the improvement of living standards,diet nutrition and mental health of school-age children are receiving more and more attention.Children aged 7–8 years are in a special period of development,the growth process of them becomes slow and stable,self-efficacy begins to develop.At this time,children enter the second grade of primary school,and have passed the difficult period of adaptation when they just entered school,dietary behavior is being guided by schools and families,and their psychological status have stabilized.This stage is very important for the formation of dietary habits.Studying the promotion of nutrition education intervention on good eating behavior of children aged 7-8 years can prepare children for nutrition cognition and eating habits when they enter puberty,and also provide scientific basis for nutrition education intervention of children aged 7-8 years.Through the literature review and learning about children’s nutrition education,dietary behavior and mental health,combined with the teaching work and practical observation in the current internship stage,and fully communicating with children and parents,it is found that children’s dietary habits,nutrition status are not ideal.Based on the literature review,combined with the actual situation of nutrition and health education and mental health activities during the epidemic period,this study investigated and analyzed the dietary habits and mental health status of children aged 7–8 years in Wuhan,and provided the basis for the intervention experiment of online nutrition education activities,so as to improve the health dietary behavior and mental health status of children and promote the physical and mental health development of children.In the first research,429 children and their parents in J primary school in Wuhan were taken as the research objects.By questionnaire and interview,the eating habits and mental health status of 7-8-year-old children were deeply understood,the problems in eating behavior were found and the reasons were analyzed,and the relationship between eating behavior and mental health status was explored,which provided the basis for the intervention of online nutrition education in the second study to improve children’s eating behavior and improve their mental health level,and provided guidance for the design of intervention programs for subsequent studies.The main conclusions of first research are as follows:(1)Children aged 7-8 in Wuhan are generally healthy in their dietary behavior,but the scores of restrictive diet and exogenous diet are high;The mental health status of children is generally good,and personality defects,learning disabilities and behavioral disorders are the top three problems affecting the mental health of children aged 7-8 in this area;(2)There are differences between boys and girls in the relationship between mental health status and dietary behavior.Boys’ learning disabilities,behavioral problems,personality defects and social adaptation difficulties are significantly related to dietary behavior,while girls’ mental health is not significantly related to dietary behavior.There are differences in the correlation between mental health status and dietary behavior among children with different BMI.Behavioral disorders of normal weight children,moral disorders of overweight children,emotional disorders and bad habits of obese children are significantly related to dietary behavior respectively;(3)The nutrition knowledge of children aged 7-8 in Wuhan is very scarce,and some children have unhealthy eating behaviors such as insufficient intake of fruits,vegetables and milk,excessive intake of sugary drinks and fried foods,but their attitude towards learning nutrition knowledge is generally positive,which shows the necessity and feasibility of carrying out nutrition education in schools.In the second research,the method of pre-test and post-test was used in the experimental group and the control group.The independent variable was whether online nutrition education activity classes were carried out,and the dependent variable was diet behavior.The score of children’s version of Dutch Diet Behavior Scale(DEBQ-C)was used to measure the mental health level,and the score of Mental Health Rating Scale of Primary school students(MHRSP)was used to test the mental health level,and whether the dependent variable changed significantly was analyzed.The subjects were children from two classes in grade two of J primary school in Wuhan.The experimental group was intervened by online nutrition education activity class,while the control group was a blank control without any experimental treatment.The main conclusions of second research are as follows: Online nutrition education intervention can significantly improve emotional and external eating behaviors of children aged 7-8,but it has no significant effect on restrictive eating behaviors;In terms of mental health,online nutrition education intervention can significantly improve the problems in learning,mood,behavior and bad habits.