Abstract

BackgroundSkipping breakfast, habitually and when experimentally manipulated, has been linked in the short-term to poorer academic performance in children. Little is known about the longer-term effects. This study examined whether skipping breakfast at aged 8-9 years predicted poorer academic performance and classroom behavior 2 years later.MethodsThe Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) collected data during 2008 (aged 8-9 years) and 2010 (aged 10-11 years). Breakfast consumption was reported by a parent/caregiver on three occasions within 4 weeks during 2008: by face-to-face interview and two subsequent questionnaires. Children who skipped breakfast on at least one of the 3 days were classified as breakfast skippers. During 2010, the child’s teacher assessed their academic performance relative to other children in the same grade (below/far below average; average; above/far above average) and classroom behavior. Objective literacy and numeracy outcomes (reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy, score range 0-1000) were obtained via linkage to Australian standardized national assessment program (NAPLAN) data in Year 5 (aged 10-11 years). Ordinal and linear regression were used, adjusted for sex, age and sociodemographic variables.ResultsAt baseline, 243 (10.7%) of the 2280 children skipped breakfast on at least 1 day. Two years later, breakfast skippers were more likely to have poorer teacher-reported reading (RR: 1.18; 95% CI: 1.08, 1.29), mathematics (RR: 1.11; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.20) and overall academic achievement (RR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.25) than non-skippers. In contrast, differences in objective NAPLAN scores were small (<3%), and only one of the five scales (numeracy) was significantly lower among skippers (mean difference − 13.0; 95% CI: -25.6, −0.8). Classroom behavior was similar between skippers and non-skippers.ConclusionIn this national sample of 8-9 year old Australian children, skipping breakfast occurred at low levels, and showed little association with measured academic performance 2 years later. This contrasted with teacher perceptions of lower academic performance among skippers than non-skippers, most likely reflecting confounding. This underscores the importance of using objective measures of academic performance to avoid inflated effect estimates and, potentially, unnecessary and costly population interventions to increase breakfast consumption.

Highlights

  • Skipping breakfast, habitually and when experimentally manipulated, has been linked in the shortterm to poorer academic performance in children

  • Using data from a national study of Australian children, this study examines whether skipping breakfast at age 8-9 years predicts poorer academic performance and classroom behavior 2 years later

  • Compared with children who were included in the main analysis, those not included were more likely to have skipped breakfast on the day of the face-to-face interview (2.8% versus 6.7%, respectively, Additional file 1: Table S1) and to have greater socioeconomic status (SES) disadvantage, poorer teacher reported academic performance and behavior, and lower National Assessment Program - Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) scores (Additional file 1: Table S1)

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Habitually and when experimentally manipulated, has been linked in the shortterm to poorer academic performance in children. This study examined whether skipping breakfast at aged 8-9 years predicted poorer academic performance and classroom behavior 2 years later. Experimental evidence indicates that, on any given day, skipping breakfast lowers cognitive and academic performance [3]. A systematic review, published in 2009, included 45 studies that examined the association between skipping breakfast and cognitive performance, including memory, attention and test grades. The authors concluded that eating breakfast generally had a positive effect on cognitive performance [2]. Cognitive performance was assessed within 12 h of eating/skipping breakfast [2]

Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call