Socio-Economic Status and Gender as Determinant of Dietary Practices of Secondary School Students’ by Exposure to Pictorial Nutrition Education for Sustainability

Abstract

Objectives: The study examined socioeconomic status and gender as determinant of dietary practices of senior secondary school students in Edo South Senatorial district for healthy living and sustainability. Methodology: Quasi experimental research design was employed in the study. Three research questions were raised and formulated into hypotheses, tested at 0.05 level of significance. A multistage random sampling technique was used to sample 245 students from two public schools in Oredo local government areas within Edo south senatorial district. Two (2) instruments (questionnaire and achievement test) validated and reliability of 0.64 and 0.84 reliability coefficient were obtained. The demographic data/SES, dietary practices (DDPSESQ) was used to obtain information on their dietary practices and socioeconomic status, while the pictorial nutrition achievement test (PNAT) consisted of the pre-and post-test. The treatment package comprised planned lessons of 40 minutes each for six (6) weeks. The data collected were analyzed using inferential statistics; hypotheses 1 and 2 were tested using the independent t-test while hypothesis 3 was tested using One-Way ANOVA statistics. Findings: The study revealed that there is no significant difference in dietary practices of students of high, medium and low socioeconomic status as a result of exposure to pictorial nutrition education. There was no significant difference in dietary practices by gender. The study concluded that socioeconomic status does not determine dietary practices of secondary school students for responsible living.