Structural Analysis of the Relationships among Elementary Teachers’ Training, Self-Efficacy, and Time Spent Teaching Nutrition

Abstract

Many factors determine the time elementary teachers devote to nutrition instruction. We tested theoretical models for the relationships among time spent teaching nutrition (TTN) and several aspects of the teacher's nutrition background: nutrition training, self-efficacy, knowledge, and beliefs. We proposed two models: (1) teachers with more nutrition training would have increased self-efficacy for teaching nutrition and, because of that increased self-efficacy, would teach more nutrition (primary model); and (2) both training and self-efficacy would directly and independently influence TTN (alternative model). The models differed only in one respect: whether the influence of training on TTN is direct or mediated by self-efficacy. We used data from a 1990-92 Hawai‘i Nutrition Education and Training Program needs assessment survey (N = 324 elementary teachers) and completed a structural analysis using the CALIS procedure of SAS. The primary model fit the actual data more closely than did the alternative model. Nutrition knowledge predicted self-efficacy for teaching nutrition, but a belief that nutrition instruction was important did not predict TTN. These results indicate that in elementary teachers, self-efficacy for teaching nutrition mediates the relationship between in-service training, nutrition knowledge, and TTN.