A comparison of two teaching strategies on nutrition knowledge, attitudes and food behavior of preschool children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two teaching strategies, benefit appeal and threat appeal, on the nutrition knowledge, attitudes and food behavior of 103 preschool children. Nutrition information was conveyed using three traditional fairy tales that were rewritten to present basic nutrition concepts. The fairy tales modified for the benefit appeal group emphasized the positive, favorable results of eating a variety of vegetables, while those modified for the threat appeal group focused on the health and nutrition risks arising from not eating vegetables. Classes of preschool children were randomly assigned to a control group or to one of two experimental groups (the benefit appeal or threat appeal). The researcher used a flannel board to illustrate the fairy tales as they were presented to the two experimental groups. One fairy tale was presented on each of three consecutive school days. Control group children did not hear the modified fairy tales. Nutrition knowledge, attitude and behavior were assessed prior to and after the story presentations. Results revealed that the benefits appeal group had higher adjusted mean posttest knowledge scores than the threat appeal group, and that both experimental groups had significantly higher adjusted mean post-test knowledge scores than the control group. Both experimental groups had similar significantly higher adjusted mean post-assessment attitude scores than the control group, but the experimental groups did not differ significantly. Results of the food behavior assessment varied with the snack choice offerings. Children in the benefit appeal group had significantly higher adjusted mean post-intervention scores than the control group for all snack choices and significantly higher adjusted mean post-intervention scores than those of the threat appeal group for half of the snack food choices; the adjusted mean post-intervention scores for the threat appeal group were significantly higher than those of the control group for only half of the snack food choices.Further research is needed, with a more demographically diverse sample, to validate the positive effect of the benefit appeal teaching strategy with preschool children.