Abstract
The studies have shown that a healthy lifestyle has a significant impact on the academic achievement of adolescents. Behavior of breakfast eating is considered a hallmark of dietary patterns and an important component of a healthy lifestyle. The prior study explained that students had a lower level of achievement motivation at school because they were exposed to some militating factors in their families such as absenteeism, ill health, malnutrition, and hunger. This study examined the mediating role of achievement motivation and moderating role of socioeconomic status (SES) in the association between breakfast consumption and academic achievement. This study used a sample of 15-year-old Chinese students who participated in Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015. In terms of gender, female students accounted for 47.2% and male students accounted for 52.8%. The results showed that (1) breakfast consumption had a positive predictive effect on academic achievement; (2) achievement motivation played a partial mediating role in the relationship between breakfast consumption and academic achievement; and (3) the direct and indirect effects were moderated by the SES of students, which meant that the effect of breakfast consumption on achievement motivation can differ depending on the SES of students. Besides, both the effects were stronger for individuals with higher SES. The conclusion of this study has an important theoretical value and reference value to guide the Chinese parents and Chinese adolescents to pay more attention to breakfast consumption and healthy lifestyles.
Highlights
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and the potential benefits of breakfast consumption for children, adolescents, and adults have been reported (Miller et al, 1998; Affenito, 2007; Timlin and Pereira, 2010)
How and when does it affect the academic achievement of students? This study examined the effect of breakfast consumption on academic achievement using data from 15year-old Chinese students participating in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) as a sample and further extends earlier research to examine the mediating role of achievement motivation and the moderating role of socioeconomic status (SES)
The present study examined whether the direct effect of breakfast consumption on academic achievement and whether the indirect effect of achievement motivation would be moderated by SES
Summary
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and the potential benefits of breakfast consumption for children, adolescents, and adults have been reported (Miller et al, 1998; Affenito, 2007; Timlin and Pereira, 2010). Skipping breakfast is quite common among children and teenagers, and the phenomenon increases with age (Affenito et al, 2005; Rampersaud et al, 2005; Delva et al, 2006). This may be more common among certain minority ethnic or low socioeconomic groups and appears to be associated with other lifestyle factors that may be detrimental to health. Regular breakfast consumption is positively associated with academic achievement in children and adolescents (Adolphus et al, 2019). Earlier studies mainly focused on the frequency of breakfast, the factors affecting breakfast frequency and the impact of breakfast frequency on academic performance, while few studies explored the mediating and moderating mechanism of breakfast consumption
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