Impact of a School-Based Cooking Curriculum for Fourth-Grade Students on Attitudes and Behaviors Is Influenced by Gender and Prior Cooking Experience

Abstract

To compare effects of the Cooking With Kids (CWK) cooking and tasting curriculum (CWK-CT) with a less-intense, tasting-only curriculum (CWK-T) and to conduct a non-treatment comparison on fourth graders' cooking self-efficacy (SE), cooking attitudes (AT), and fruit and vegetable preferences (FVP). Pre-post, quasi-experimental, 2 cohorts. Eleven low-income public schools in a Southwestern city. Fourth-grade students, 50% female and 84% Hispanic. School-based experiential nutrition education program of 5 2-hour cooking and/or 51-hour fruit and vegetable tasting lessons throughout the school year. Cooking self-efficacy, AT, and FVP were assessed with 3 tested, validated scales administered in a 37-item survey pre- and post-classroom intervention. General linear modeling with gender and prior cooking experience were fixed factors. Among 961 students, CWK positively affected FVP, especially in CWK-CT students and males (P = .045 and .033, respectively); vegetable preference drove this outcome. Independent of treatment, students without cooking experience (61% male) had more than twice the gains in cooking self-efficacy (P = .004) and an improved AT response (P = .003). Cooking With Kids increased FVP, especially with vegetables. Greatest gains in preferences and self-efficacy were seen in boys without prior cooking experience. For fourth graders, experiential nutrition education improved cognitive behaviors that may mediate healthful food choices.