The relation between breakfast skipping and school performance in Adolescents

A.M. Boschloo, C. Ouwehand, S.J. Dekker, N.C. Lee, R.H.M. de Groot, A.C. Krabbendam, J. Jolles

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    Breakfast skipping is common in adolescents, but research on the effects of breakfast skipping on school performance is scarce. This current cross-sectional survey study of 605 adolescents aged 11-18 years investigated whether adolescents who habitually skip breakfast have lower end-of-term grades than adolescents who eat breakfast daily. Additionally, the roles of sleep behavior, namely chronotype, and attention were explored. Results showed that breakfast skippers performed lower at school than breakfast eaters. The findings were similar for younger and older adolescents and for boys and girls. Adolescents with an evening chronotype were more likely to skip breakfast, but chronotype was unrelated to school performance. Furthermore, attention problems partially mediated the relation between breakfast skipping and school performance. This large-scale study emphasizes the importance of breakfast as a determinant for school performance. The results give reason to investigate the mechanisms underlying the relation between skipping breakfast, attention, and school performance in more detail. © 2012 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2012 International Mind, Brain, and Education Society and Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)81-88
    JournalMind, Brain, and Education
    Volume6
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The relation between breakfast skipping and school performance in Adolescents'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this