Snacking behavior among elementary and junior high school students and its relationship to stress-coping

The aim of the present study was to investigate current problems of snacking behavior and their relationship to stress coping among 1,486 fourth through ninth grade students from 10 elementary schools and six junior high schools. An anonymous self-completed questionnaire was utilized which included items about 1) selection of snack foods, which were classified into healthy, popular, complementary and western-style snacks, 2) problems of snacking behavior, which included external and emotional eating scores, and 3) stress coping scale. The stress coping scale contained two sub-scales; problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. The results were as follows: 1) Students who frequently went without breakfast did not select healthy foods, i.e., fruits and dairy products, but popular snacks, i.e., potato chips, pop corn and sweet beverage. 2) Both external and emotional eating scores increased by age in girls but was not apparent in boys. 3) Students who preferred either western-style or popular snacks showed higher score of external and emotional eating. 4) The score of problem-focused coping was positively correlated with preference for health snacks, but emotion-focused coping was positively correlated with external and emotional eating scores. The close relationship between snack food selection and problematic aspects of eating behavior suggests that modification of eating behavior is necessary to develop healthy snack habits in early adolescents. Also, it is interesting that snacking behavior is closely related to stress coping, which suggested the behavioral intervention for healthy eating habit should be included in development of stress-coping skills against various kinds of demands in life.