Examining Needs and Preferences for a Cooking Skills Education Program among Adolescents from Low-income Families

Category/Date

Clinical Research Podium Presentations: Current Topics in Pediatric Research. Presented at NAPNAP's 45^th National Conference on Pediatric Health Care, March 14, 2024.

Background

Food and cooking skills are essential to putting dietary recommendations into practice, but modern teenagers have limited access to food and cooking education. Teens are a critical target for cooking and food skill development. The Texas Children's Mobile Clinic Program (TC-MCP) partnered with nutrition researchers to conduct a needs-based assessment of high school adolescents in a public charter school serving low-income students to understand needs and preferences for a healthy cooking and food skills intervention.

Methods

The study was conducted in southeast Houston, Texas. The research team developed a questionnaire from previously validated instruments examining student demographics, food insecurity, dietary intake, cooking self-efficacy, and preferences for intervention programming. The survey was distributed to all 11th and 12th graders via email or on paper.

Results

The survey was sent to 202 students, and 82 (41%) completed the survey. The majority of respondents were female (68.3%), just over 16 years old, and either Black/African American or Hispanic white (80.5%). The majority of students (70.7%) reported eating less than 1 cup of vegetables per day, and most (62.2%) reported eating fast food more than 2 times per week. Just over half (59.8%) reported eating more than 1 cup of fruit per day. Based on a 5-point Likert scale, respondents reported higher self-efficacy regarding their ability to cut up or prepare ingredients (mean=3.76) and shop or help shop for groceries (3.70), and lower self-efficacy regarding ability to cook without a recipe (3.11) and to make a meal for their family (3.13).

Conclusions

Students in low-income families face many health inequities. This project highlights the gaps in their food and cooking education. Mobile clinic collaboration with under-resourced schools may be key to addressing these types of issues among youth. However, more research is needed to understand how to optimize programs like this.