INTRODUCTION:

Breakfast is known as the most important meal of the day, it provides people with fuel to begin their day. Breakfast consumption is associated with positive outcomes for diet quality, micronutrient intake, and weight status and lifestyle factors. Breakfast has been suggested to positively affect learning in children in terms of behaviour and school performance.

Eating breakfast improves the overall quality and nutrient intake of the diet. Conversely, breakfast skippers may not make up for missed nutrients at other meals during the day-whether they are children, adolescents or adults.¹

Breakfast is among the principle food which in early morning satisfies the nutritional needs and increases mental work load ability². Breakfast should contain varied food for the ease of digestion and absorption process. Eating, therefore, did not mean only to fill up the stomach, but nutritional benefits should also be considered.³ Breakfast is widely acknowledged to be the most important meal of the day. Children who habitually consume breakfast are more likely to have favourable nutrient intakes including higher intake of dietary fibre, total carbohydrate and lower total fat and cholesterol.⁴

Skipping breakfast can affect School children physical and mental development. Skipping breakfast may hinder child’s growth because the body is forced to call upon stores of protein to meet energy requirements. Behavioural problems in children – including decreased attentiveness, irritability and hyperactivity – have been reported to be associated with the transient hunger resulting from missing breakfast. Providing breakfast to students at school has been reported to improve some cognitive functions, particularly in undernourished children. The researches that have been conducted by many researchers around the world stated that skipping breakfast may lead to heart risks. Children that usually skips breakfast also may gain weight in their adolescence day. This is because, when the children skip the breakfast, they tend to have increased food intake than normal children due to hunger. Thus, the calories will solidify in the arteries, causing blockages in the heart and thus leading to heart attack.⁵

The main reasons for skipping breakfast in School children seem to be related to: Lack of time, Lack of morning appetite, Adolescents - concern about their body weight. Benefits children could avail on having a healthy breakfast include; an increase in attention following breakfast, compared with no breakfast, may be reflected by an increase in on-task behaviour during lessons. Similarly, changes in cognitive performance may also impact school performance and academic outcomes in a cumulative manner.⁶

A study on “Breakfast consumption: The Indian scenario” (2018) reported that 1 in 4 Urban Indian skip breakfast across all age groups, 72% skimp by having a nutritionally inadequate breakfast and 3% regarded breakfast as essential. Breakfast skipping was observed to a large extent in Mumbai (79%).⁷

M Aarthi, V Vishnupriya (2018) conducted a study on awareness on the effects of skipping breakfast among adolescents. Study revealed that 72% did not eat breakfast regularly, 84.3% running out of time, 62% are aware of the effects of skipping, 39.6% agreed that they are taking breakfast only once in a week and 98.1% of participants agreed that breakfast is the important meal of the day.⁸

In India, approximately 31 percent of the growing population comprises children in the age group of 0-14 years of whom 26.7 percent currently reside in urban India (NIPCCD, 2012). A recent survey by the Diabetes Foundation of India (2013) showed that 40% of children skip breakfast and 21.58% do not carry lunch boxes to school.⁹

School children are not aware of the effects of breakfast and educating on its importance is needed. Based on the above studies and overviews, the researcher felt that assessing the Knowledge of regular and healthy Breakfast among School Children are of great importance. PPAT is one of the effective means of health promotion. Hence the investigator felt there is a need to provide a PPAT. Providing an PPAT will help generate the awareness about importance and the various effects of regular breakfast.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. To develop and validate Power Point Assisted Teaching (PPAT) regarding Breakfast Skipping among School Children.

2. To assess the level of Knowledge regarding Breakfast Skipping among School Children before and after administering PPAT.

3. To evaluate the Effectiveness of PPAT on Knowledge among School Children regarding Breakfast Skipping in terms of gain in post-test Knowledge scores.

4. To associate the post-test Knowledge scores among School Children regarding Breakfast Skipping with selected Demographic variables.

HYPOTHESES:

H1: There will be a significant increase in the post-test Knowledge scores among School Children regarding Breakfast Skipping after administering Power Point Assisted Teaching at 0.05 level of significance.

H2: There will be a significant association between the post-test Knowledge scores among School Children regarding Breakfast Skipping with their selected Demographic variables at 0.05 level of significance.

ASSUMPTIONS:

The study assumes that School Children:

· May have limited Knowledge regarding Breakfast Skipping.

· May improve their Knowledge regarding Breakfast Skipping.

· May co–operate and participate in the study.

DELIMITATIONS:

This study was delimited to:

· School Children between 11-15 years age group and studying VI –X standard.

· Sample size of 100

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:

Conceptual framework adapted for this study was based upon ‘Ludwig Von Bertalanffy’s General System Theory’ (1968)

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Quantitative approach was considered as an appropriate research approach for the present study. Quasi-experimental one group pre-test post-test research design was considered appropriate. Don Bosco School in Hyderabad was selected as the setting for the study. In this study dependent variable was Knowledge and independent variable was the Power Point Assisted Teaching regarding Breakfast Skipping among School Children. The sample size for the present study was 100 School Children who were studying in Don Bosco School, Hyderabad. The sample for the study was selected using simple random sampling technique. Structured Knowledge Questionnaire was prepared to assess Knowledge among School Children regarding Breakfast Skipping.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

Analysis and interpretation was done with the help of Descriptive and Inferential statistics to meet the objectives and test hypotheses of the study.

Section A: Description of The Sample’s Demographic Variables in Terms of Frequency and Percentage:

· The maximum 32 percent of School Children were in the age group of 13 years.

· Majority 84 percent of School Children were girls.

· The maximum 32 percent of School Children were from the 8th class.

· Majority 58 percent of School Children mothers had secondary education.

· Majority 42 percent of School Children fathers studied Intermediate.

· The maximum 61 percent of School Children fathers were working as daily wages.

· The maximum 63 percent of School Children mothers were Housewives.

· Majority 57 percent of School Children’s family income per month was Rs 5,001-10,000/-

· Majority 41 percent of School Children were Christians.

· Majority 45 percent of School Children were from nuclear family.

· Majority 94 percent of School Children had no previous Knowledge regarding Breakfast Skipping.

· Maximum 2 percent of School Children had previous Knowledge from peer group and 2 percent from health personnel.

Section B: Description of Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Pre-Test and Post-Test Knowledge Scores Regarding Breakfast Skipping Among School Children:

Majority i.e., 94 percent had below average Knowledge, while 6 percent had average Knowledge and none of them had above average Knowledge in pretest. The Knowledge score of School Children in post-test shows majority i.e., 54 percent acquired above average Knowledge, while 46 percent had average Knowledge and none of them have below average Knowledge. Thus, it can be interpreted that the increase in Knowledge was due to Effectiveness of Power Point Assisted Teaching.

Section C: Effectiveness of Power Point Assisted Teaching Regarding Breakfast Skipping Among School Children:

The mean score of Knowledge in the pre-test is 6.86 and it was increased to 20.86 in the post-test. There was an increase in the post-test average Knowledge scores among School Children regarding Breakfast Skipping. The standard deviation for pre-test was 3.30, where as for the posttest, it was 2.71 which indicated that the deviation from the mean was reduced. The paired “t” test was computed to find the Effectiveness of PPAT on Knowledge regarding Breakfast Skipping among School Children. The calculated value of “t” test is 60.37 which was greater than the tabulated value of “t” with 99 degree of freedom i.e., 1.98, was found to be significant at 0.05 level. It indicated that the PPAT was highly effective as there was a highly significant increase in the post-test Knowledge scores among School children regarding Breakfast Skipping. Hence, research hypothesis H1 was accepted as there was a highly significant increase of Knowledge scores among School children after administering PPAT regarding Breakfast skipping. Further, it can be inferred that the significant increase was due to the Effectiveness of PPAT and not by chance.

Section D: Description of The Association Between Post-Test Knowledge Scores with Selected Demographic Variables:

The chi-square analysis was carried out to determine the association between post-test Knowledge scores and selected Demographic variables among School Children and it was significantly associated with at p 0.05 level with variables of Age, Educational status of Students, Occupational status of Father and Mother and Family income per month, rest of the variables were non-significant.

Hence, research hypothesis (H2) was accepted and research hypothesis was rejected for other variables such as Gender, Educational status of Mother, Educational status of Father, Religion, Type of family, Previous Knowledge and Source of information.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

The study was limited to:

· Sample size of present only 100, hence generalization was not possible.

· Selected Schools in Hyderabad which possibly will decrease credibility of the study.

· Only to the English medium students hence the findings cannot be generalized to other School Children in other setting.

· Only a single domain that is Knowledge hence, the findings cannot be generalized to other areas of domains such as attitude and practice.

· The tool used for the data collection was not standardized. It was designed by the investigator herself for the purpose of present study based on the objectives of the study.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

On the basis of the study, the following recommendations are given for future studies.

· A similar study can be done on large population, with the intention that generalization might be possible to a larger population.

· A similar study can be undertaken with a control group design.

· A comparative study can be carried out between urban and rural study settings.

· A comparative study can be carried out between English medium and Telugu medium Schools to check out the Knowledge among School Children regarding Breakfast Skipping.

CONCLUSION:

On the basis of the present study, the researcher concluded that, the Knowledge among School Children regarding Breakfast Skipping was inadequate. The Power Point Assisted Teaching helped the School Children to acquire adequate Knowledge regarding Breakfast Skipping. The study results showed that there was significant improvement in the Knowledge among School Children regarding Breakfast Skipping after participation in PPAT.

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Received on 25.05.2022 Modified on 17.06.2022

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2022; 10(3):225-228.

DOI: 10.52711/2454-2660.2022.00053