An analysis of nutrition level of adolescent school children with respect to the educational levels and child-raising attitudes of their parents

One of the most important parameters that affect the development of adolescents is their nutrition level. It is known that adolescents with a balanced diet have advantages in academic success as well as physiological development. In the puberty where quite various psychological and physiological variations occur, child raising attitudes of parents is admittedly important with regard to the behavior of adolescents. This study aims to bring a viewpoint to healthy nutrition concept which is required for healthy development and individual success of adolescents with regard to attitudes within the family which is the smallest unit of a society and socio-economical status of the family. Sampling of the research is composed of 116 adolescents and their parents who applied to Ankara (Turkey) Diskapi Pediatrics Training and Research Hospital with nutrition complaints. In order to determine the attitudes of parents of adolescents whose nutrition and development conditions are measured clinically, Parent Attitude Scale and socio-demographical scale have been used in the research. Research findings indicate that there is a negative correlation between democratic child-raising attitudes of parents and level of nutrition of adolescents. While the level of nutrition varies depending on the income level of the families, no variation depending on “education level” of parents has been determined.