Poster #103 - Development of a Novel Protocol to Assess Hands-On Cooking Skills in School-Aged Youth

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Health, Growth, Injury

Integrative Statement

Background: Consuming a nutritious diet is crucial to ensure healthy growth and development, but the majority of children in the United States fail to meet dietary recommendations (Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee). Children of all ages who participate in food preparation tend to have healthier dietary attitudes and behaviors, including increased self-efficacy for eating and selecting healthy foods, stronger preferences for fruits and vegetables, and better overall diet quality (Larson et al., 2006; Metcalfe et al., 2018; Chu et al., 2014). Though culinary education programs for youth are common throughout the United States, scant research has been conducted that accurately assesses changes in hands-on cooking skills as a result of participation in these programs. Commonly used survey measures are inadequate in capturing changes in tangible cooking skills, and can only evaluate self-reported self-efficacy for cooking skills of youth participants in cooking programs.
Objective: This study developed a novel observational protocol to assess hands-on cooking skills among youth participants in the Illinois Junior Chefs (IJC) Program. Analyses assessed changes in specific hands-on cooking skills (cracking eggs, using a peeler, using a grater, measuring skills, and mixing skills) from pre- to post-intervention.
Program Description: The Illinois Junior Chefs Program is a hands-on culinary education program targeting youth aged 8-13 and was implemented with approximately 1000 participants in summer 2017. The program takes place over the summer in a variety of community-based settings, including community centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, summer camps, and local churches and libraries. IJC is implemented by trained nutrition educators through the University of Illinois Office of Extension and Outreach. IJC is implemented through five 2-hour lessons, usually over the course of five consecutive days. Each IJC lesson includes a food group focus (e.g., grains), teaches a specific culinary skill (e.g., measuring skills), and has participants prepare a recipe that uses the food group and skill taught that day (e.g., pumpkin pancakes).
Evaluation: A novel observational protocol was developed to assess hands-on cooking skills taught in IJC and pilot tested with 22 youth (who had not participated in IJC). This hands-on skills evaluation was used to create proportion scores assessing hands-on cooking skills (cracking eggs, using a peeler, using a grater, measuring skills, and mixing skills) with 37 participants both pre- and post-intervention. Paired samples t-tests were used to assess pre- to post-intervention changes in hands-on cooking skills.
Results: Paired samples t-tests indicated that participants experienced significant pre- to post-intervention improvements in all hands-on cooking skills assessed by the observational protocol. Proportion scores improved significantly for participants in cracking eggs (t(36)=2.70, p=.010), using a peeler (t(36)=5.11, p<.001), using a grater (t(36)=5.62, p<.001), measuring skills (t(36)=5.75, p<.001), and mixing skills (t(36)=4.72, p<.001).
Conclusions: The observational cooking skills assessment protocol demonstrated that participants in IJC experienced significant improvements in hands-on cooking skills as a result of participation in the program. Future research with hands-on cooking programs should consider the adoption of hands-on cooking skills assessments to accurately evaluate changes in skills and their impact on dietary behaviors.

Authors

• Jessica Metcalfe, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Barbara Fiese, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer McCaffrey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author