Breakfast Eating Habit: A Statisical Research Project Essay

Every day millions of people around the globe turn off their alarm clocks and start their day. Some will jump out of bed and hit the door running full tilt because they are already 10 minutes late. Others are up hours before they are required to be anywhere, soak in the sunrise and settle into a predefined routine, of which breakfast may or may not be a part of. But who eats breakfast? Are there any significant factors that predispose certain people to eat breakfast or not eat breakfast? One approach to determining dependency of environmental variables and eating habits is to class individuals according to one of many possible variables. The topic for discussion in this paper is breakfast eating habits among women and the variability of children, specifically, whether women with pre teen children living at home eat breakfast more frequently than women without pre teen children. In theory, a person might assume that that women with pre teen children will tend to eat breakfast more so than women without pre teen children due in part to the responsibility they have to wake up early and prepare their children for the days events including school and sports. Different factors of each home can vary results in either direction but our research attempts to determine the dependency that pre teen may have on their mothers own breakfast eating habits. There is a tremendous amount of research done on the benefits of eating a health breakfast not only for adults, but children as well. Researchers have found that when healthy, lean women skipped their morning meal, it raised their cholesterol levels and diminished their bodies’ sensitivity to insulin, a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels. In addition, the women tended to eat more calories on breakfast-free days, suggesting that over time, skipping breakfast could spur weight gain. Past studies have also suggested that women who eat breakfast, particularly whole-grain cereals, have lower cholesterol and insulin levels. Along with past evidence, new findings suggest that making time for breakfast is likely to have long-term health benefits. Whether one of those benefits results in a smaller waistline remains unclear. Some research has found a direct correlation between eating breakfast, particularly whole-grain foods, and lower body weight. Conversely, other studies have found no such relationship exists. What is clear is that researchers have found evidence that Mom was right: breakfast may really be the most important meal of the day, especially for growing children. It is essential for children to regularly consume a balanced breakfast. Data supports that the more often adolescents eat breakfast, the less likely they tend to be overweight. Additional studies have shown children are more focused in school and do better academically than those who skip breakfast. Children show the tendency to have more energy throughout the day and are more likely to participate in school activities and sports. Psychologists have determined children mostly observe their parents and follow their actions. A healthy habit of eating breakfast would tend to be a learned trait by following generations and influence the children to continue eating breakfast into adulthood. Experts also surmise that if breakfast is regularly consumed as a family meal, it may reduce the likelihood of drug use as children mature into adults. The feeling of family  closeness and nurturing support is a significant factor in reduced propensity of crime related activities with children. In order to help determine whether or not any dependency exists between breakfast eating habits and having pre teen children, our team created a survey that asked very basic questions relating to age, pregnancy, children, and how many times those women ate a breakfast that consisted of more than water or coffee. Our research chose to exclude women that where pregnant with their first child in order to rule out any difference in opinion of whether or not those women had a child at all. Our research also specifically excluded women under the age of 18 due to a litany of factors that we will not discuss in this paper. The breakfast quantities were lumped into three groups: 0-2 times per week, 3-5 times per week, and 6-7 times per week. We then randomly distributed our survey via the internet in order to capture a diverse group of woman and collated the responses. Since our research focused on determining dependency between pre teen children and eating breakfast, our null and alternative statements were simple: Null Statement – There is no difference in breakfast eating habits of women in relation to having pre teen children or having no pre teen children living in the house. Alternative Statement – Women with pre teen children living in the house eat breakfast more frequently then women who do not have pre teen children living in the house. Failing to reject the null statement would be an indication that no dependency lies between having children and eating breakfast. Conversely and what we expected to see was that a dependency did exist between the two. Our survey yielded 39 respondents, of which the category breakdown is as follows: Breakfast 0-2 Breakfast 3-5 Breakfast 6-7 With Preteen Children 1 7 6 Without Preteen Children 4 4 17 While the data may indicate a correlation between having children and breakfast eating habits exist, performing a Chi Squared Test for Independence revealed that we are 95% confident that no such relationship exists as shown by the graph on the following page: Our research dictates that we need to fail to reject the null hypothesis thus determining that with 95% certainty, no relationship exists. In conclusion, while having pre teen children in the home has no bearing on whether or not women age 18 and higher eat breakfast more often, there may be other factors that would lend itself to a dependency. Actively working, reporting time, time of year, and perhaps a survey on men might be other explored variable in an effort to determine any dependency relating to breakfast eating habits. It was interesting to note that respondents that did not have children ate breakfast in the 6-7 times a week range disproportionately higher than the other two categories. Further research is needed to ferret out any identifiable variable that would support this evidence. It is important to note for further discussion that the test statistic calculated high enough to the critical value that based on a larger sample size, a possibility may still exist that a dependent relationship is real, but not within our sample. Eating breakfast has been determined beneficial for adults and children alike, if research could identify correlations, education could be tailored to specific at risk groups and encourage those within the preferred band of dependency.