Özet:

This study aimed to evaluate the breakfast attitude and healthy eating self-efficacy status of children and the factors affecting them (such as gender, BMI, and mindful eating). The study included 505 children (47.9% boys, 52.1% girls) with a mean age of 9.7±0.77 years. Data were obtained using the survey and a face-to-face interview method. The questionnaire includes general information, anthropometric measurements, Breakfast Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ), Self-Efficacy for Healthy Eating Questionnaire (SEHE), and Mindful Eating Questionnaire for Children (MEQ-C). While 46.9% of children have normal BMI, 42.2% are overweight or obese. 39.6% of children reported skipping at least one main meal or snack. Of those who skipped meals, 19.0% skipped breakfast, and 60.5% skipped at least one of the snacks. The BAQ score was higher in girls (p=0.003); lower in overweight/obese children (p<0.05). Those who did not skip breakfast had higher SEHE scores (p=0.020). When the factors affecting the scores obtained from BAQ were evaluated with multiple linear regression analysis, child BMI, Mindless eating score affected BAQ score negatively, father education duration, mother and father BMI, Awareness, and SEHE scores affected BAQ score positively. Awareness and BAQ scores were found to affect SEHE positively. Our findings indicate that breakfast attitudes are related to healthy eating self-efficacy, mindful eating, and BMI in children and may also be related to parents' educational status and BMI. These results show that it is very important to provide education by nutritionists in order to improve children's breakfast attitudes, healthy eating self-efficacy and mindful eating skills.

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