Piaget-Based Nutrition Education in Preschools

Piaget-Based Nutrition Education in Preschools: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Methods Evaluation

This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study evaluated a six-week Piaget-based nutrition education programme for preschool children. Seven public preschools were randomized at the school level to an intervention condition (three preschools) or a usual-curriculum control condition (four preschools). The intervention consisted of six weekly, approximately 30-minute, developmentally tailored sessions delivered to groups of children in their usual classrooms. Mothers completed measures of children's food consumption frequency, nutrition behavior, and eating behavior before and immediately after the programme. Following the quantitative phase, three focus groups with 18 mothers from intervention preschools explored perceived changes and helped interpret the quantitative patterns. Because preschool identifiers were not retained in the final analytical dataset, the reported child-level analyses did not adjust for clustering and are interpreted as exploratory.

The sample of the study consists of preschool children and their mothers.

Inclusion criteria for the sample:

• Mothers of children aged 3-6 attending kindergartens affiliated with the Provincial Directorate of National Education
• Mothers whose children do not have any health problems affecting their nutritional status
• Mothers aged 18 and above
• Mothers who are at least literate.

The exclusion criteria for the study are as follows:

• Children with hearing and speech problems,
• Children who do not understand or speak Turkish,
• Children with any illness or learning difficulties,
• Those who participate for a maximum of 2 weeks during the six-week nutrition training.