A structural model of training and confidence as predictors of time spent teaching nutrition by elementary school teachers

Abstract

Many factors, including nutrition background, determine the amount of time elementary teachers devote to nutrition instruction. The purpose of this study was to test theoretical structural models for the relationships among time spent teaching nutrition and several aspects of the teacher's nutrition background: nutrition knowledge, training, and beliefs. I proposed two theoretical structural models. In the primary model, I hypothesized that teachers with more nutrition training would feel more confident in their ability to teach nutrition, and because of that increased confidence, would teach more nutrition. In the alternative model, I hypothesized that both training and confidence would directly and independently influence the time spent teaching nutrition. In addition, both models assumed that (1) nutrition knowledge had a direct influence on teacher confidence for teaching nutrition, and (2) a belief that nutrition instruction was important had a direct influence on the time spent teaching nutrition. I tested the primary and alternative models using data from a 1990-92 Nutrition Education and Training Program needs assessment survey, which was collected from a stratified random sample of all Hawai'i elementary teachers (N=324). The survey included questions that could be used as measures of all the constructs of interest. Analysis of the covariance structures was completed using the CALIS procedure of SAS. Based on Chi-square and other indices of model fit, the primary model fit the actual data more closely than did the alternative model. Of the constructs included in the models, confidence was the strongest predictor of the time spent teaching nutrition. However, in the primary model all of the constructs explained only 12% of the variance in the time spent teaching nutrition and in the alternative model only 10% of the variance. In both models, nutrition knowledge was a statistically significant (p < .05) predictor of confidence for teaching nutrition, but belief that nutrition instruction was important was not a statistically significant predictor of the time spent teaching nutrition. These results suggest that in elementary teachers, confidence in their ability to teach nutrition mediates the relationship between in-service training, nutrition knowledge, and the time spent teaching nutrition.