Eating breakfast regularly is related to higher school connectedness and academic performance in Canadian middle- and high-school students

Highlights

• Regular breakfast consumption is related to higher school connectedness and academic performance.

• High levels of school connectedness were associated with positive school performance.

• Association of eating breakfast and academic performance did not differ by connectedness levels.

Introduction

Research studies have documented the benefits of breakfast consumption on school performance.¹ Youth who eat breakfast perform better academically¹ and those who skip breakfast have been found to report poor academic performance.² School connectedness refers to the belief among students that teachers and other adults within the school care about them as individuals and about their learning³ According to Catalano and Hawkins,⁴ school connectedness results from students' attachment and commitment to school and their involvement in it. The Social Development Model posits that children learn patterns of behavior from their social environments (e.g. school) and a social bond is formed between them and others within the social environment once there is consistency in the socializing process.⁴

School connectedness is an important factor in both health and learning, and research studies have shown that students who feel connected to school are more likely to have a number of positive health and academic outcomes. Given that eating breakfast has been shown to have positive effects on children's cognitive performance, mental health and emotional well-being, eating breakfast can be expected to improve both school connectedness and academic performance.⁵ To date, research is lacking that empirically examines the association between breakfast consumption and school connectedness. Evidence of such an association would inform future prevention strategies.

The objective of this study is to investigate the association between breakfast consumption and school connectedness and to extend previous research on the association between breakfast consumption and academic performance by providing a Canadian examination of this association using a large and diverse sample of middle- and high-school students. It is hypothesized that (1) students who eat breakfast regularly would have higher school connectedness and academic performance; (2) school connectedness would moderate the link between breakfast consumption and academic performance.

Data were obtained from the 2013 cycle of the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, a province-wide repeated cross-sectional school-based survey of students in grades 7–12.⁶ The Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey uses a two-stage (school, class) stratified (region and school type) cluster sample design. The 2013 total sample was 10,272 students from 42 school boards, 198 schools, and 671 classrooms. The student response rate was 63%, which is above average for a survey of students that requires active parental consent. Absenteeism (11%) and lack of parental consent (26%) were the reasons for non-response. All participants provided their own assent, in addition to parental signed consent for those under 18 years of age. The study design and methods are described in detail elsewhere.⁶ School connectedness was measured based on students' agreement with the following three statements: ‘I feel close to people at this school’, ‘I feel like I am part of this school’, and ‘I feel safe in my school.’ Response options ranged from strongly agree 1 to strongly disagree 4. Responses were reverse coded, summed, and dichotomized, with scores less than or equal to one standard deviation below the mean classified as disconnected to school and higher scores classified as connected to school. Regular breakfast consumers were those students who ate breakfast on all five days and less regular breakfast consumers were those who ate breakfast less frequently. Academic performance was treated as a binary measure indicating whether the students achieved good marks (70%–100%) vs poor marks (below 70%).

Statistical analyses accounted for the complex sample design of the survey and were restricted to the participants with complete information on all variables included in the present study, except parent education level and body mass index (BMI) (n = 9912; 93%). Internal consistency of the school connectedness items was tested using Cronbach's alpha reliability test. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to assess the overall fit of the three school connectedness items as one factor (i.e. all three items loading on a single factor). Model fit is considered to be acceptable if standardized root mean–squared residual)—which is the average of the differences between the observed and predicted correlations—is near 0, with values of less than 0.08 indicating good fit,⁷ and if coefficient of determination is near 1. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the associations between breakfast consumption and each of the outcome variables of school connectedness and academic performance. Covariates included age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), parental education level, and BMI. Two-way interactions were used to test interactions between age and eating breakfast, and between sex and eating breakfast for each outcome, and between school connectedness and eating breakfast for the outcome of academic performance.