Running Head: Impact of Home Economics

The Impact of Home Economics Education on Dietary Choices in High School

Students.

Martina Seo

University of British Columbia

Impact of Home Economics

Table of Contents

Introduction....1

Problem Statement......2

Critical Review of the Literature........3

Research Method.9

Description.9

Participants..10

Instruments or Materials....11

Procedure....12

Research Design and Analysis....12

Timeline...13

Discussion...14

References..15
Impact of Home Economics 1

Introduction

Im interested in researching to what extent does my Food Studies class

impact a high school students eating habits throughout the school year. My

interest is based on my background as a Home Economics Teacher at West

Vancouver Secondary School where I teach Foods and Nutrition 8, 9, and 11 to

approximately 170 students each year. I am fascinated in learning if my class

theory, demonstrations, labs, guest speakers and projects make a difference in

the personal lives of my students whether they choose to cook and eat healthy

meals at home versus fast or processed foods. As a Home Economist, I wonder

if I am making a positive impact in the lives of my students healthy eating

choices and to what extent. How important is my role as a Foods and Nutritional

Educator? Is Home Economics relevant or will it become obsolete?

The results would be beneficial to Home Economists to discover how

Food and Nutritional classes influence the personal food choices of teens before,

during and after the school year. I would share my findings with my colleagues in

my school, district and province to work on how to improve and promote healthy

eating choices based on the Canada Food Guide for our high school students. I

believe it will be exciting to learn the results and there is wealth of information for

me to learn. We need to prepare our youth for achieving a successful adulthood.

With the rise of youth obesity in Canada since the late 1970s where the

results have lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, poor

emotional health and diminished social well-beingas well, obese children tend

to become obese adults, making childhood obesity a public health concern

Impact of Home Economics 2

(http://www.statcan.gc.ca), I want to ensure my students are equipped to make

healthy eating decisions throughout the school year to decrease their chances of

adulthood obesity and other poor nutritional health concerns. My main goal with

this research is to learn what affects students choices in eating and how can I

improve and promote healthy eating choices. I want to be able to equip them

with the tools of today for success in tomorrow.

According to Canadas Food Guide, my goals are for students to choose

variety of foods, 7 - 8 servings of vegetables and fruits a day, 6 7 grain

products daily, 3 4 servings of dairy daily, 2 3 servings of meat daily, foods

with low in sugar, fat and salt content, increase in water intake versus sugary

drinks, healthy recipes, meal planning and enjoying cooking and eating healthy

foods at home (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca). To reach my goals for my students, I

need to know where they are at now, see if and how much improvement is

needed to make a positive impact and observe whether this is achieved by the

end of the school year in June.

Problem Statement

With obesity in 1 in 5 youth and 17% of the population with high blood

pressure, Canadians need to eat healthier (http://www.statcan.gc.ca). Do Home

Economics classes make a difference in the cooking healthy meals at home and

healthy eating habits in high school students? Are students who attend Home

Economics classes healthier than those students who do not? There is a rise in

global fast food establishments and processed foods consumption in a fast

paced world. Can Home Economists instill the importance of whole foods and
Impact of Home Economics 3

cooking healthy meals at home? When there is limited amount of healthy foods

consumed in the body, it can lead to obesity, chronic diseases such as diabetes,

cancer, heart disease and stroke and poor nutrition. As a Home Economist, it is

my duty to ensure the necessary education is administered to my students to

have the ability to achieve the goal of learning how to plan and create a healthy

meal for long-term health attainment. My research questions are: How often do

students eat healthy before, during and after my Foods and Nutrition classes?

Have my Foods and Nutrition classes made an impact on their healthy meal

choices at home or when they are out with their friends? What factors decide

what high school students consume?

Critical Review of the Literature

There are five distinct themes I came across while composing this section.

Firstly, high school setting is a great environment to research on why teenagers

consume the foods that they do and if my Home Economics classes make a

difference in their cooking and eating choices. Secondly, with rising obesity and

other food related health issues, it is more important than ever to find out why

students decide to eat poorly and rectify the situation quickly. Thirdly, through

other studies, I have learned students need community based support to change

their diet habits and if this is the case for my students, I would like to ask staff

and community to design a meaningful nutrition program for our students.

Fourthly, there was a study done implying schools are heterogeneous if there are

sports focused. Are my students heterogeneous or homogenous due to that fact

my school district is one of the wealthiest in the world? Lastly, it is stated having
Impact of Home Economics 4

food educational classes are beneficial in achieving healthy diets within the

youth, so can I conclude my classes do make an impact in my students? I feel

like I have more questions now than when I started my paper and Im excited to

dive deeper and explore the vast amount of possibilities.

To begin with, I want to learn about what has already been implemented at

the secondary school level. It became clear to me quite quickly the high school

setting is the perfect opportunity to engage and teach students about healthy

eating. As in Weight Status, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity: Are There Differences

in Meeting Recommended Health Behavior Guidelines for Adolescents? by

Karl E Minges, he states schools present an ideal setting to implement healthy

lifestyle education, and school nurses are poised to capitalize on existing

resources and the structured nature of schools to facilitate health promotion

educational and activity-based programs. Starting small, gaining support of

adolescents, parents, colleagues, and administrators is also an important part of

the process. Minges also articulates shocking low levels of healthy behavior in

normal weight and obese teens. Correspondingly, Implementing a

Multicomponent School-Based Obesity Prevention Intervention: A Qualitative

Study by Mary L Greaney et al, there needs to be faculty and staff support to

implement large-scale interventions for preventing obesity in the school setting.

With the collaborations with sustainable organizations, which can offer resources

and continuous training, schools can be more successful in preventing and

superseding high school obesity (Greaney, M. m., Hardwick, C. K.,

Spadano-Gasbarro, J. L., Peterson, K. E., Mezgebu, S., Horan, C.

Impact of Home Economics 5

M., & ... Austin, S. B., 2014). By incorporating the research study at the

secondary school level, I would be able to reach and gather integral data to find

out the sources of the reasons on what affects the decisions of teens diets.

My main reasoning behind the research of whether and to what extent do

my Foods and Nutrition classes affect my students learning outcomes and

personal practices stem from the increase of diabetes, obesity and other food

related issues in teens. It is considered when high school students eat high

levels of sugar; it can lead to diabetes and other health related issues (Nansel,

2015, p. 433). There was a study done to observe daily diet costs were factors in

improving the diets of those diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (Nansel, 2015, p.

433). It was determined if families of high schools students with type 1 diabetes

were educated in dietary counseling, they were able to improve the quality of

their diets without the pressure of increased financial burden. (Nansel, 2015, p.

433). I would like to know if financial background is cause of poor nutritional

choices in my students and if by doing a project in meal planning and grocery

shopping online would help students reconsider their food purchases and

consumption. Moreover, many US secondary schools vending machines and

school stores provide low-nutrient, energy-dense snacks and beverages

leaning towards more sugar-sweetened beverages, high fat and sodium content

snacks and candy. There must be a reform in the school food environment to

help students have a better selection of foods to choose from while attending

secondary school establishments. (Kubik, 2015, pp. 101105) If the lunch food

and vending machines provisions are the factors leading to poor nutritional health
Impact of Home Economics 6

concerns, figuring out the cause of poor nutritional health decisions will help in

the finding the solution for my students.

From what I understand, changing a high school students diet envelops

multi-faceted dimensions where the pupil requires support from not only one, but

also numerous people in their school and home community. Such as in Impact

of Baltimore Healthy Eating Zones: An Environmental Intervention to Improve

Diet Among African American Youth by Ahyoung Shin et al. concluded at a

community based intervention to change the food environment and healthy

decisions in low-income settings showed success in lowering BMI in the

childrens percentile, however, there were regression. She accounts multi-

faceted approach with recreation centers, small food stores, and interpersonal

support through peer mentoring as attributing to their achieving their goals. She

believes with a more community approach with storeowner support, they could

have reached a higher level of accomplishment (Shin, A., Surkan, P. J., Coutinho,

A. J., Suratkar, S. R., Campbell, R. K., Rowan, M., & ... Gittelsohn, J., 2015).

Likewise, Kehm et al. concluded in their study The Role of Family and

Community Involvement in the Development and Implementation of School

Nutrition and Physical Activity Policy that with family and community

collaboration, there is a potential to have a positive impact on school nutrition

and physical activity. To achieve levels of standard in healthy school nutrition and

physical activity, schools, families and communities must contribute to creating a

healthy community for the students (Kehm, R., Davey, C. S., & Nanney, M.

S. 2015). If this is the case with my students from based on their decisions and
Impact of Home Economics 7

accountability in following Canadas Food Guide based diet, I will then be

required to recruit colleagues from my school, district and public community to

educate the student and to see further development in the students diet.

There may be a bias at my school because it is in one of the wealthiest

school districts not only in the Lower Mainland, British Columbia, but also in

Canada and the world. My students come from very privileged homes and highly

educated parents. As Demment expressed in Rural Middle School

Nutrition and Physical Activity Environments and the Change in

Body Mass Index During Adolescence, there was a substantial

heterogeneity in the school environments such as schools that provided sport

activities had lower BMI, but not necessarily for lower-income students. School

environments may have differing effects on students depending on their

socioeconomic status. Strategies are needed to identify and address barriers that

impair low-income students' access to health-promoting school resources.

(Demment, 2015) I would be interested in learning if students from wealthy and

highly educated families eat healthier or worse from their high achieving and

affluent background. It would be presumptuous of me to assume just because

students are from rich families, they are automatically living a healthy nutritional

lifestyle.

There must be some positive outcomes from a research study to find out

the impact of Foods and Nutrition courses at the high school level. For example,

in Dietary Improvements Among African American Youth: Results of an

Interactive Nutrition Promotion Program by Rosemond, Blake, Jenkins, Buff, &

Impact of Home Economics 8

Moore, the authors created and administered The Junior Doctors of Health

(JDOH) program in collaboration between a large medical university, school

district, and community organization to address obesity-related behaviors in

children through education, skill building, and mentoring. By providing an

intervention, the childrens results were positive where the boys fruit intake

increased considerably and the girls intake of fruit, green salad, carrots,

potatoes, and other vegetables increased drastically. (Rosemond, Blake,

Jenkins, Buff, & Moore, 2015, p. 41) Having a nutritional educational system

placed in schools can provide nutritional education with positive dietary behavior

enhancement among African American youth. (Rosemond et al., 2015, p. 42) I

would be interested in working the Youth Worker at my school to intervene and

aid in guiding students with low food nutritional literacy and implementing an

intervention when required at the high school level. Or do my classes already

provide this niche by educating students on what constitutes a healthy nutritional

diet at the high school level? By structuring my study to better understand what

are the deciding factors on teens food choices, I will be able to focus on how to

direct my curriculum in the future.

For further research, I would like to conduct a study where I learn how my

Foods and Nutritional impacts my students eating behaviors outside of class and

what factors attribute to their decision making in food consumption. With the

information gathered from the study, I will able to determine to redirect my course

and modify it to have the greatest impact in serving my students to achieving

nutritional health success conferring to Canadas Food Guide.

Impact of Home Economics 9

Research Methods

Description

I will be employing both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect the

data required for the research. This case study will consist of pretest, posttest,

journals and interviews recorded with digital video. Pretest and posttest are

required to see where the base of the participants level of current and post

nutritional level of intake to observe the differences before, during and after the

school year. Each student will log journals on what they consumed on a daily

basis in intervals during the year and why they chose to eat their particular

meals. It will measure their preferences, daily intake of calories and variety of

foods chosen. The interviews will aid in answering in depth questions on the

affects of the Food Studies course provided and how it impacts their food choices

in their personal lives.

The pretest and posttest will consist of multiple-choice questions, closed

ended questions and short paragraph opened questions. This quantitative

method will provide data to be analyzed and graphed throughout the year. I will

be able to collect numerical data on individual student caloric intake, meeting

Canadas Food Guide requirements for healthy diet and body mass index (BMI)

for their age, gender and height. I will recruit a dietician and a nurse to help me

to measure and calculate the students BMI and food intake.

For the qualitative method, I will be recording interviews with each student

individually and in-group settings prior, during and after the study to gather data
Impact of Home Economics 10

to interpret and code to analyze what influences the students eating habits and

record any changes positively or negatively throughout the course of the year. In

addition, students will be journaling daily eating habits and why they chose to

consume a particular meal or snack item whether it is based on advertisement,

taste, packaging, friends influence, price, convenience, class notes, etc.

Participants

I am a Home Economics Teacher at West Vancouver Secondary School

and I will conduct my research in my school environment. Because I will be

conducting my research at my school with the youth, I will have to ask permission

from my superintendent, principal and Drama teacher. After receiving approval, I

will then send home emails for parental consent to have students participate in

my research study. I will follow all ethical procedures and receive approvals at a

district, school administrative, staff and parental level prior to conducting the

study at hand.

I will be using cluster groups because I have decided to pretest all Drama

9 and 11 students along with all Home Economics 9 and 11 students. The

Drama and Home Economics students will be self-registered in the chosen

classes. After grouping students in three groups of high, medium and low on the

healthy diet scales according to Canadas Food Guide, I will randomly choose

students in each section from Drama 9 and Drama 11 as my control group and

Foods and Nutrition 9 and Foods and Nutrition 11 as my experimental group. I

will choose two students from the low, medium and high groups from each class.

Therefore, I will have a total of 12 Drama students and 12 Foods students and
Impact of Home Economics 11

compare the differences between the two groups over the course of the school

year.

The rationale is I want to know what factors affect a students decision on

what they are consuming and how to better to understand factors leading to

healthy eating decisions. By having a control and experimental group, I will be

able to observe if my Foods and Nutritional classes are making a significant

impact with the students food consumption choices in healthy home cooked

meals versus fast-food or highly processed foods rich in fat, sodium and/or low

nutritional value. Participating students will be asked to journal in weekly

intervals throughout the year logging in their daily intake and reasoning on their

food selections.

By having the students scribe their eating habits for a week at the

beginning, middle and at the end of the year, I will be able to chart their progress.

I want them to share the factors that decide what they eat at home and when

they are out. I will also interview them once a term to see if their eating habits

have changed for the better or the worse and why. Then, I will administer a

posttest and to compare and analyze their progress.

Instruments and Materials

I will develop a multiple-choice pretest based on Canadas Food Guide to

determine which category each student goes under (High, Medium, Low

Nutritional Health). Then, I will supply diet journals for one week for each term

for selected participant. There are three terms in a school year from September

1 to June 30. During the year, I will be administering one videotaped interview
Impact of Home Economics 12

per term with each individual participant to chart their progress and understand

the reasoning on their choices in food consumption. At the end of the school

year, I will present a posttest to each participant to collect data to compare from

their pretest and analyze their progress.

Procedure

The study will take place in my school. The pretest will be administered in

the beginning of the school year to all the students in 1 Drama 9 class, 1 Drama

11 class, 1 Foods and Nutrition 9 class and 1 Foods and Nutrition 11 class for the

first 10 minutes of class. Then, I will categorize the students into three groups of

low, medium and high nutritional healthy diets in regards to Canada Food Guide.

After, I will randomly select participants from each class depending on their level

of nutritional value of their diet. I will invite the school district dietician and school

nurse to help me measure the chosen students BMI level, body measurements

and weight in the nurses station. The video recorded interviews and posttest will

be executed in my classroom after school. The student diet journals will be

conducted at home and returned to me after each week. Finally, I will code and

analyze all the data collected with the help of the school district dietician and

nurse.

Research Design and Analysis

Justification I want to learn the eating habits of secondary school students

and if Home Economics classes make a difference in eating healthier diets. I

believe a pretest and posttest will help with where the students are starting from

and where they end up at the end of the school year. By interviewing them, I can
Impact of Home Economics 13

further gather information on what leading factors influence what they eat when

they are at home and when they are out with their friends.

Analysis By administering a pretest and posttest, I can chart what the

students eating habits are at the beginning and end of the school year for the

control group (Drama 9 and 11) versus the experimental group (Foods 9 and 11).

With the data collected from the video taped interviews and journals, I will

understand what factors influence their eating habits and what causes them to

change. With the information obtained from the study, then I will then redesign

my curriculum to help modify eating patterns for the better according to Canadas

Food Guide.

Timeline

The time for the research is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Timeline of the Research.

Date Procedure
September 8, 2015 Pretest
September 14 18, 2015 Diet Journal Week
November 2, 2015 1st Interview
February 1, 2016 2nd Interview
May 2, 2016 3rd Interview
June 6 10, 2016 Diet Journal Week
June 1, 2016 Posttest

Discussion

Significance

By having the data collected, I can share with other Home Economists

what influences secondary school students to eat healthier and how we can
Impact of Home Economics 14

promote a more balanced diet to our students to combat obesity and high blood

pressure in our nation.

Limitations

There will be only 24 students in total and they will be randomly selected

after they have chosen to sign up for Drama or Home Economics and then

categorized after their pretest. There are 200 students in the grade at my school.

There can be may varying factors why students to change their diets and it will

not be solely because of my Foods and Nutrition classes such as finances,

cultural backgrounds, parental influences, food provided at school cafeteria and

etc.

What if the students drop out, transfer to another school, take a long family

vacation or get a long-term illness? Mortality?

Hypothesis

I am assuming my Foods and Nutrition classes would make some impact.

According to Canadas Food Guide, I am assuming some of my students will

start cooking and eating better at home and when they are out with their friends

because what they have learned healthy eating standards in my class.

Reference

Demment, M., Wells, N., & Olson, C. (2015). Rural Middle School

Nutrition and Physical Activity Environments and the

Impact of Home Economics 15

Change in Body Mass Index During Adolescence. Journal Of

School Health, 85(2), 100-108. doi:10.1111/josh.12227

Government of South Australia. (2015, March 5). The risks of poor

nutrition. South Australia Health. Retrieved from

http://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+con

tent/sa+health+internet/healthy+living/is+your+health+at+ri

sk/the+risks+of+poor+nutrition

Greaney, M. m., Hardwick, C. K., Spadano-Gasbarro, J. L.,

Peterson, K. E., Mezgebu, S., Horan, C. M., & ... Austin, S. B.

(2014). Implementing a Multicomponent School-Based

Obesity Prevention Intervention: A Qualitative Study.

Journal Of Nutrition Education & Behavior, 46(6), 576-582.

doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2014.04.293

Kehm, R., Davey, C. S., & Nanney, M. S. (2015). The Role of Family

and Community Involvement in the Development and

Implementation of School Nutrition and Physical Activity

Policy. Journal Of School Health, 85(2), 90-99.

doi:10.1111/josh.12231

Kubik, M. k., Davey, C., MacLehose, R. F., Coombes, B., & Nanney,

M. S. (2015). Snacks, Beverages, Vending Machines, and

Impact of Home Economics 16

School Stores: A Comparison of Alternative and Regular

Schools in Minnesota, 2002 to 2008. Journal Of The

Academy Of Nutrition & Dietetics, 115(1), 101-105.

doi:10.1016/j.jand.2014.06.359

Minges, K. E., Chao, A., Nam, S., Grey, M., & Whittemore, R. (2015). Weight

Status, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity: Are There Differences in Meeting

Recommended Health Behavior Guidelines for Adolescents?. Journal Of

School Nursing (Sage Publications Inc.), 31(2), 135-145.

doi:10.1177/1059840514554089

Nansel, T. n., Haynie, D., Lipsky, L., Mehta, S., & Laffel, L. (2015). Little Variation

in Diet Cost Across Wide Ranges of Overall Dietary Quality among Youth

with Type 1 Diabetes. Journal Of The Academy Of Nutrition & Dietetics,

115(3), 433-439.e1. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2014.07.035

Roberts, K., Shields, M., de Groh, M., Aziz, A., & Gilbert, A. (2012, September

19). Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents: Results from the

2009 to 2011 Canadian Health Measures Survey. Retrieved from

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2012003/article/11706-eng.htm

Rosemond, T. N., Blake, C. E., Jenkins, K. A., Buff, S. M., & Moore,

J. B. (2015). Dietary Improvements Among African American

Youth: Results of an Interactive Nutrition Promotion

Program. American Journal Of Health Education, 46(1), 40-

47. doi:10.1080/19325037.2014.977409
Impact of Home Economics 17

Shin, A., Surkan, P. J., Coutinho, A. J., Suratkar, S. R., Campbell, R. K., Rowan,

M., & ... Gittelsohn, J. (2015). Impact of Baltimore Healthy Eating Zones:

An Environmental Intervention to Improve Diet Among African American

Youth. Health Education & Behavior, 42(1), 97S-105S.

doi:10.1177/1090198115571362