Investigators
Alanna Sincovich, Mary Brushe, Zara Boulton, Honey Rahmanian, Neida Sechague Monroy, Tess Gregory
Project description
Eating a regular, healthy breakfast is required to support good health, wellbeing and development throughout childhood and adolescence. However, international research has shown that skipping breakfast is common, and School Breakfast Programs have been established in many countries to help promote breakfast consumption among children and young people.
There is limited evidence exploring how common breakfast skipping is among students in Australia, reasons behind skipping breakfast, and how skipping might influence learning and development outcomes that are important throughout the life course. Researchers in the Early Years Systems Evidence team have been leading a body of work focused on exploring these questions.
Using data collected via the Wellbeing and Engagement Collection (WEC), an annual census of student wellbeing within the South Australian government education system, we are investigating the following questions:
- What is the prevalence of breakfast skipping among children and adolescents across South Australia, and does this differ according to student characteristics?
- Is skipping breakfast skipping related to poorer cognitive and emotional engagement at school?
- Is skipping breakfast related to poorer literacy and numeracy outcomes among children and adolescents in South Australia?
- How is breakfast skipping associated with social and emotional wellbeing among children and adolescents across South Australia?
- What are the impacts of School Breakfast Programs on child and adolescent health, development, and education outcomes internationally?
Recently, our research findings informed an additional $6.5 million investment as part of the 2023-24 South Australian State Budget to expand the state’s School Breakfast Programs. Ultimately, next steps of this this research aim to identify effective and sustainable solutions to promote breakfast consumption among children and adolescents.
External collaborators
- Professor Lisa Smithers, University of Wollongong
- Associate Professor Zohra Lassi, Robinson Research Institute
Project output
Sincovich A, Perfect D, Gregory T. Research Snapshot. Breakfast skipping among children and adolescents in South Australia: A snapshot of recent research. 2022.
Sincovich A, Moller H, Smithers L, Brushe M, Lassi ZS, Brinkman SA, Gregory T. Prevalence of breakfast skipping among children and adolescents: a cross-sectional population level study. BMC Pediatrics. 2022;22(1).
Moller H, Sincovich A, Gregory T, Smithers L. Breakfast skipping and cognitive and emotional engagement at school: A cross-sectional population level study. Public Health Nutrition. 2021.