Adolphus, K, Lawton, CL and Dye, L (2015) The relationship between habitual breakfast consumption frequency and academic performance in British adolescents. Frontiers in Public Health, 3. 68. ISSN 2296-2565
Abstract
Breakfast has been shown to be beneficial for cognitive and academic performance in school children. However, there is a paucity of studies which examine the relationship between breakfast consumption and academic performance and a complete absence of studies in UK school children. The aim of this study, therefore, was to examine the association between habitual breakfast consumption frequency and Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) performance, a reasoning test routinely used in UK schools. Adolescents aged 11–13 years (n = 292; males: 53.8%) completed a questionnaire to report usual weekly breakfast intake frequency. Breakfast was subjectively defined by the participants. Habitual weekly breakfast consumption frequency was categorized as rare (0–2 days), occasional (3–4 days), or frequent (5–7 days). Participants’ CAT performance was used as a proxy measure of academic performance. The CAT has three components: verbal, non-verbal, and quantitative reasoning. Normative standard age scores (SAS) for verbal, non-verbal, quantitative reasoning, and overall mean SAS were obtained from school records and hierarchical linear regression models were applied, adjusting for the confounders: gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, English as an Additional Language, and body mass index. Habitual breakfast consumption frequency did not significantly predict any CAT SAS in all models (crude and adjusted). However, methodological considerations which could account for this disagreement with previous research, were identified. These included the isolation of school-day breakfast consumption, use of a standard definition of breakfast, and measurement of actual academic performance. The findings of the current study suggest more comprehensive ways in which future studies might investigate the relationship between habitual breakfast consumption and academic performance.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015, Adolphus, Lawton and Dye. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
Keywords: | Breakfast; academic performance; adolescents; learning; cognitive abilities test |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Medicine (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 08 May 2015 11:11 |
Last Modified: | 08 May 2015 15:05 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2015.00068 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/fpubh.2015.00068 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:85827 |