FOOD LITERACY AND PREVENTION OF EATING DISORDERS: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Francesco Del Sorbo

Abstract


Eating disorders (EDs) are among the major public health emergencies in childhood (Smink, van Hoeken & Hoek, 2012).

Studies such as those by Dalle Grave (2013) and Cuzzolaro (2014) highlight how primary school represents a privileged context for implementing early and preventive interventions related to EDs.

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured nutrition education program on a sample of fifth-grade primary school students, taking into consideration the construct of Food Literacy (FL), understood as an integrated set of knowledge, attitudes, and skills oriented towards informed and critical food choices, in order to implement preventive educational interventions (Vidgen & Gallegos, 2014; Truman, Lane & Elliott, 2017; Slater, Falkenberg, Rutherford & Colatruglio, 2018).

This study was conducted in a primary school and lasted ten weeks (eight two-hour modules). The experimental group followed activities in critical food literacy, body image education, and food media literacy.

The results of this study show that food education interventions in primary schools generate positive effects on knowledge, but have limitations in producing changes in body image and eating behaviours. This gap suggests an increase in FL, which would represent a dimension indirectly associated with the promotion of more conscious eating behaviours and potentially relevant for prevention.


Keywords


Eating disorders; Food literacy; Body image.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.32043/gsd.v1i1.1703

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