The majority of American children fall far short of meeting national nutrition recommendations. Participation in home meal preparation has been associated with stronger preferences for fruits and vegetables and improved diet quality in school-aged children (10-11), but this association has never been examined in younger children. This study investigated predictors and eating behaviors related to food involvement (cooking, shopping, and meal planning) in children. Parents of children (n=295) participated in the Synergistic Theory and Research on Obesity and Nutrition Group (STRONG) Kids Study. Survey data were collected at three time points, data presented here were gathered during the second wave of the study when children were aged 3-8 (mean=4.4). Parents filled out the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ), Mealtime Routines Survey, Problematic Eating Scale (PES), and the ECLS-K Children’s Nutrition Behavior Questionnaire. Multiple linear regression methods were used to analyze the data. Analyses indicated that mealtime routines, food refusal behaviors, number of siblings, and positive parental feeding behaviors explained 38.3% of the variance in food involvement, controlling for children’s gender and age. It was found that that mealtime routines (B=.045, p<.001), food refusal behaviors (b=-.194, p=.013), number of siblings (b=-.125, p=.023), and positive parental feeding behaviors (b=.100, p=.023) predicted food involvement. Additionally, food involvement independently predicted increased fruit (r2=.170, b=.186, p=.003) and vegetable consumption (r2=.223, b=.229, p<.001), and decreased fast food (r2=.129, b=-.023, p=.024) consumption. As these results suggest a strong relationship between food involvement and healthy dietary behaviors, increasing culinary education programs may be one method to encourage healthier eating in children.