Skipping breakfast among 8-9 year old children is associated with teacher-reported but not objectively measured academic performance two years later

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of breakfast skippers and breakfast consumers, aged 8-9 years (N = 2280)

	Never skipped^a (n = 2037)^b		≥1 skip^a (n = 243)^b		P-value^c
Characteristic	n	(%)	n	(%)
Child’s sex
Male	1057	(89.5)	124	(10.5)
Female	980	(89.2)	119	(10.8)	0.800
Ethnicity
Non-Indigenous	2012	(89.5)	236	(10.5)
Indigenous	24	(77.4)	7	(22.6)	0.030
Sex of primary caregiver
Male	79	(86.8)	12	(13.2)
Female	1958	(89.5)	231	(10.6)	0.425
Socio-economic status (SES)^d
Most disadvantaged SES quartile	398	(87.5)	58	(12.5)
Least disadvantaged SES quartile	418	(90.9)	44	(9.1)	0.098
Mother completed high school
No	673	(87.7)	94	(12.3)
Yes	1353	(90.3)	146	(9.7)	0.066
Father completed high school
No	764	(88.7)	98	(11.3)
Yes	1070	(91.1)	109	(8.9)	0.082
Two parent home
No	183	(82.4)	39	(17.6)
Yes	1854	(90.1)	204	(9.9)	<0.001

^aBreakfast consumption was reported by a parent/caregiver on three separate days: by face-to-face interview and two subsequent time use diaries
^bNumbers do not always equal the total sample number due to missing data
^c P-values calculated by chi-square analyses
^dSocioeconomic status quartiles are based on the distribution of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children data

ISSN: 2055-0928