Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate eating behaviors related to snack and self-purchasing snack (SPS) among elementary school children. Self-administered questionnairs were completed by 352, 5th and 6th grade elementary school students living in 3 different regions which included apartment region in Bundangn, Sungnam (apartment group, n=116), residences in Seodaemun-Gu and Mapo-Gu, Seoul (kang-buk group, n=103) and residence in industrial region in Sungnam (industry group, n=133). The results were as follows: A significantly higher proportion (64.7%) of the apartment group had breakfast every morning than those of kang-buk (48.6%) or industry (52.1%) group (p<0.01). As for the frequency rate of snack and self-purchasing snack (SPS), 53.9% of the subjects answered taking snack more than once per day, 22.8%, once for few days and 23.3%, almost not. However, 15.5% of the subject had SPS once or more per day, 30.7%, 1-2 times per week and 22.4%, almost not. Those of apartment group showed significantly lower SPS frequencies (p<0.01), since higher proportions answered having SPS 1-2times per week (40.9%) and almost not (31.3%) compared to other groups. The reasons for having SPS turned out to be 'hunger' 54.7%, 'being habitual', 15.9%, 'bing bored', 15.7% and 'with peers' 13.7%. When subjects selected SPS foods, they considered taste (31.5%), price (23.0%), mood at the time (14.1%), sanitorial aspect (10.2%) and quantity (10.1%) rather than nutritional aspect (7.2%). Subjects' pocket money was estimated as 3736 won per week and SPS expense per time as 706 won. But subjects who spent more than 2000 won for SPS expense were significantly higher (33.0%) in apartment group than those of other groups (p<0.01). The favorite snack items that subjects having at home were fruit, ice cream, milk and yoghurt, cookies, ramen and bread in order. And favorite SPS items turned out to be ice cream, cookies, duckbokki, frozen bars, gum, chocholate and candy in order. The frequency rate of SPS were evaluated to be significantly related by several variables: those living in apartment area (p<0.01), those taking breakfast regularly (p<0.01), those of normal weight status by Rohrer index (p<0.05) and those receiving less pocket money (p<0.01) showed lower SPS frequency rate.
