Self-reports of diet: how children remember what they have eaten.

Determining how children remember what they have eaten may guide the development of specific cues that help children report their diets more accurately. This research used a cognitive-processing approach to examine fourth graders' self-reports of diet. School lunches were observed to determine what was really eaten and the results of these observations were compared with students' reports of what they had eaten and how they remembered that information.

A measure of stages of change in fruit and vegetable consumption among fourth- and fifth-grade school children: reliability and validity.

Objective: We developed, pilot-tested, and field-applied a stages of change questionnaire regarding fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption among fourth- and fifth-grade students.

Methods: The design included cross-sectional assessment of internal consistency and construct validity, and 2-week and 7-week longitudinal assessment of test-retest reliability. Subjects included 134 students from one school for pilot-testing and 252 from two schools for field application.

How children remember what they have eaten.

Objectives: To determine whether students could verbalize, within 1 1/2 hours, how they remembered items eaten at the school lunch; to determine whether the categories of self-reported retrieval mechanisms were similar for two interview styles, integrated and nonintegrated; and to determine the effect of the two interview style on the accuracy of reporting items eaten by comparing reports with direct observation.

Design: Two styles of dietary intake interviews were compared with observed intake in a school lunch setting.

Setting: Two elementary schools in Georgia.

Fruit and vegetable food frequencies by fourth and fifth grade students: validity and reliability.

Objective: Due to the increased emphasis on fruit and vegetable (F+V) consumption and a desire to use the simplest dietary assessment method appropriate to determine F+V intake, we assessed the reliability and validity of weekly and monthly fruit and vegetable food frequency questionnaires (F+V FFQ) among fourth and fifth grade students by comparing them to food records previously validated through school lunch observations.

Methods: The multiethnic sample (primarily African-American and Caucasian) included predominantly lower-middle socioeconomic students from 10 classes at one elementary school. F+V FFQ were printed on optical scanning forms and classroom administered on two occasions.

Accuracy of fourth- and fifth-grade students' food records compared with school-lunch observations.

Fourth- and fifth-grade students' food records completed by using a labor-intensive approach (with daily monitoring) or a less labor-intensive approach (with weekly monitoring) were compared with school-lunch observations. Records were completed at three elementary schools for 14-23 d by students in 26 classes. Record pages were printed forms with areas for recording items consumed, number of servings, and locations of meals.