This study examined the relationship between mothers' consciousness of diet and their infant feeding methods and weaning practices. Consciousness of diet analyzed from 17 questions concerning the attitudes and opinions of diet was classified into 6 categories using the factor analysis. These categories were the faithfulness of diet, the health-directed dietary practices, the application of health information, the application of information about food and nutrition, the sincerity to meal preparation, and dietary habits. The 400 mothers selected randomly from Wonju area were surveyed. The results obtained from the study were summarized as follows. Weaning was implemented earlier by the group with better education career and with the exact knowledge of weaning. Factors associated with infant feeding methods included some sociodemographic characteristics such as birth order, mothers' employment state and income level and mothers' effort toward faithfulness of diet. The use of health-foods and nutrient supplements were prefered by the groups used bottle-feeding method. The health condition of the infants was influenced by mother's will to carry out the health information rather than infant feeding methods and weaning foods used. Mothers who perceived the importance of diet for health and consumed more milk had healthier babies, and their dietary habits were more favorable. The subjects who self-recognized the meaning of weaning and who believed that earlier weaning was good for baby or delayed weaning was the cause of anemia and poor appetite, took advantage of the information about food and nutrition as well as prefered the health-directed dietary practices. Mothers who retried to feed the weaning food rejected by baby before, applied the dietary information to the real meal management more actively and had a more desirable dietary habits. In those cases the baby had improved health condition. Those who were interested in the meaning of weaning and the nutritious effect of weaning foods, revealed significantly higher tendency on the performance of cooking information and the more confidence to the health information from advertisement.

Infanthood is a crucial period when mental and emotional developments take place along with physical growth. Adequate supply of nutrition is essential during this period and there is an urgent need for proper education and guidance on balanced nutrition. Therefore, this study tried to set the direction for developing baby food by investigating the conditions of weaning status and mothers perspectives on weaning. According to the result of this study, the average period when interviewees began weaning of their infants is 4.1 months and finishing period of weaning is 14.2 months on average. The frequency of consuming commercial weaning food is once a week. As high as 88.4% and the fruit juice was mainly used as the starting weaning food. The consumtion rate, more than once a day, is as high as 60%, they use commercial weaning food for convenience, especially when they are out. The 65% of surveyed group show rather dissatisfactory view about the commercial weaning food, and wanted improvements and changes. Interviewees wanted to obtain the information on baby food sold in the market and how to prepare baby food through technical literatures, and they frequently relied on commercial baby food due to its convenience. The most desired type of baby food was semi-solid paste in a disposable package that can be stored at room temperature.

Infanthood is a crucial period when mental and emotional developments take place along with physical growth. Adequate supply of nutrition is essential during this period and there is an urgent need for proper education and guidance on balanced nutrition. Therefore, this study was designed to assess to current status of lactation and to investigate mothers' perspectives on human milk and formular milk. As random samples for this study, a total of 352 mothers having infant under the age of 4 were surveyed. 27.3% of mother surveyed were breast-feeding, 38.0% were formula-feeding and 34.7% were mixed-feeding. According to the result of this study, the percentage of breast feeding was on the decrease, while the dependence on formular milk was on the rise. The main reason of formula-feeding was insufficient secretion of human milk on mothers part. The major factors that affect to select feeding method were employment status, degree of education, family income and age. Also, the interviewees desired the product fortified with special ingredients that are hot contained in formular milk currently available in the market. The most concerned problem of formula milk was indigestion and the interviewees wanted the formular milk to be improved digestibility.

The objectives of the present study were to assess the early nutrition-related knowledge, eating behaviors of preschool children, the types of messages that their mothers give to them about nutrition and to analysis the interrelationships among these variables. The children of this study showed the uncooperative eating behaviors most frequently when they had breakfast and vegetables. In these cases the most frequent mother's messages given to the children was encourage eating some of each food. Children's eating problems as perceived by mothers were mainly low dietary intake and an unbalanced diet. The most frequent messages given to the children in the presentation of new foods were telling the child taste them and general nutrition about the new food. General topics in nutrition the mothers had discussed with their children were about nutrients, food groups, food transformations and food origins. Children whom mothers provided more information about these topics scored significantly higher on the concepts of food transformation, food origins and the total nutrition knowledge score. It is clear from this study that preschool children begin to learn about nutrition through these parental messages. Both parents and caretakers of young children should recognize the potential importance of these early interaction patterns.

This study was undertaken to determine factors associated with infant feeding practices among highly educated Korean mothers living in Texas, USA and local populations. In both groups, infant's birth order, maternal age, prenatal education, husband's attitude, mother's attitude and infant's taking a bottle to bed were not associated with infant's feeding patterns significantly. However, there was a significant difference in initiating time for introduction of supplementary foods between Koreans and Americans. Thus Korean mothers introduced supplementary foods earlier than American counterparts. Furthermore the infant's feeding method among all participants affected the time for introducing supplementary foods significantly. Though attitude of Korean mothers toward breastfeeding was slightly more positive than that of American mothers, the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in Koreans was much lower than that in Americans. It might be suggested that effective nutrition education program for Korean subjects should be developed to practice breastfeeding from positive attitude and knowledge. It might be also suggested that participation of prenatal nutrition education involving fathers should be encouraged for promotion of rates of initiation and duration of exclusive breastfeeding of mothers.

This study estimated the status of dietary intake of 258 children from ages 3 to 6 living in Seoul and analyzed the correlation between the degree of children's nutrition awareness and dietary intake, to provide some basic informations on nutrition education program for their health promotion. Average height and weight of the children were 110.5 cm and 19.7 kg. And their body mass index was 16.2 and obesity index was 6.5%. Proportions of carbohydrate, protein and fat to the total calorie intakes were on the average 55.8%, 15.6% and 28.6%. Calorie intake proportion of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack were 20.9%, 21.9%, 22.3% and 34.9%. In protein intake, proportion of animal and vegetable protein was 1.4, in fat intake pattern, P/M/S ratio was 1.2/1.2/1.0. As a consequence of analyzing the correlation between children's nutrition awareness and dietary intake, children of high awareness degree to the food value did not intake much calorie and carbohydrate, and did not choose cereals and starches, condensed fat food. As a result, dietary intake of pre-school children showed very good but partially showed a problem of over and under nutrition in quantity or in quality we hope that the result of this study could be helpful for the nutrition education program for the health and nutrition of the pre-school children.

The objectives of the present study were to assess the preschool-children's awareness of nutrition, their level of control over foods and involvement in food-related activities and to examine the interrelationships among these variables. The children of this study demonstrated low levels of awareness of the concepts of food groups and the roles of both foods and exercise in energy balance. But the degree of children's awarences about the concepts of food transformations, food origins and food values was favorable. The range of possible scores was 0 to 18, while the range of the children's scores was 2 to 16. The mean score was 9.3, represently 52% of the questions answered correctly. Factors associated with the children's involvement in food-related activities were children's age, familly's income and mother's dietary balance. Children who were more involved in food related activities had significantly higher nutrition awareness scores.

A study was designed to assess the current status of infant feeding and weaning practice through an retrospective survey on feeding method, a period of weaning and various kinds of weaning food. Analysing a few influential environmental factors while assessing the level of knowledge today's mothers have on infant nutrition. The results are as follows: 1. As random samples for this study, a total of 516 mothers having infants under the age of 3 were surveyed. Among them, 235 were from Seoul and 281 were from Kyongi province (Yongin, Suwon, Bupyong, Poil, Kihung, Ansan(Chungbuk)). 2. Among the infants who fell under the category of normality (Kaup index 15~18), the infants from Seoul area amounted to 60.7%, surpassing the percentage of the infants from Kyongi province, 41.9%. The percentage of the infants belong to a group of under nutrition (Kaup index 〈13) was relatively higher than that of the infants in a group of overnutrition (Kaup index 〉20). 3. 16.1% of mother surveyed were breast-fed, 54.6% were formula-fed and 29.3% were mixed-fed. The result indicated that the percentage of breast-fed infants of high-educated, working mothers were relatively lower than those of low-educated housewives. 4. Most of the respondents knew the significance or the necessity of supplementary food in terms of weaning. 5. 98.8% of those surveyed responded that the mother's adequate knowledge on weaning was necessary. 70.1% of them replied that they wanted to get various and in-depth information in printed materials such as books or other kinds of publications. They, also showed deep interest in recipe of weaning food. 6. The average period when those surveyed began weaning of their infants was 4.3±1.8 months. The tendency of earlier weaning in 3 months was founded among 41.1% of them. About half of the respondents, 52.3%, started weaning of their infants in 4~6 months. In overall, 93.4% of them set on weaning in less than 6 months after babies were born. The survey, in addition, revealed an interesting fact that earlier weaning of infants was shown in the group of high-educated mothers. 7. According to the study, finishing period of weaning was 13.3±5.4 months on average. Only 38.9% of the respondents ended weaning of their infants in 12 months, the proper period recommended by renowned experts. In general, the infants on formula-feeding finished their weaning later than those on breast-feeding (p〈0.05).

목적: 이 연구의 목적은 영유아 어머니들의 육아 일상에서 운동이 주는 의미를 구성주의 근거이론(Constructing Grounded Theory) 접근 방법으로 탐색해보는 것이다. 방법: 연구 참여자는 유목적 표집법을 활용하여 서울과 청 주지역의 만 0세∼6세의 자녀를 둔 영유아 어머니 중 규칙적인 운동을 6개월 이상 실천하고 있는 인원을 선별하 였다. 이 과정에서 참여자들의 관계망을 통해 연쇄적으로 표본의 수가 증가하는 눈덩이 표집(snowball sampling) 현상이 나타났다. 총 127명의 설문 응답 자료 중 불성실한 자료를 제외하고 최종 115명의 자료를 수집하였다. 자 료 분석은 Charmaz(2006)의 구성주의 근거이론 방법의 절차에 따라 코딩 과정에서 추출한 각 범주를 기반으로 영유아 어머니들이 갖는 운동의 의미를 도식화하여 구성하였다. 결과: 첫째, 영유아 어머니들의 ‘운동 시작 계기’ 도식은 자기 돌봄의 상위범주가 신체적, 심리적 돌봄의 하위범주로 구분되어 나타난 구조를 확인하였다. 둘째, 어 머니들의 ‘운동 지속’ 요인들의 도식화 결과, 운동환경구축, 개인적 차원, 운동의 이득으로 모아진 각 범주가 서 로 순차적 관계가 있는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 셋째, ‘운동의 의미’를 도식화한 결과, 운동은 영유아 어머니들의 신체적, 정신적 건강증진에 도움을 주어 ‘자기(self)’를 돌볼 수 있는 수단으로 작용하며, 이는 아이들에게도 긍 정적인 영향을 미쳐 다시 정신건강 증진과 자기 돌봄 행동의 강화로 이어지는 긍정적인 선순환적 구조를 확인 하였다. 또한, 운동은 ‘자기’와 ‘육아’ 사이에서 균형을 이룰 수 있는 중심이자, 삶의 원동력이 되는 것으로 나타 났다. 결론: 종합적으로 운동은 육아의 일상에서 돌봄 노동에 지속해서 노출된 영유아 어머니들의 신체적, 정신 적 건강증진을 도모할 뿐 아니라 삶의 균형을 찾는 데에 매우 중요한 역할을 한다. 이러한 결과가 의미하는 바 는 주 양육자(어머니를 포함한)가 자기 돌봄을 영위할 수 있는 환경적 구축이 무엇보다 중요하며 운동을 비롯한 자기 돌봄 행위의 지속적인 유지가 가능하도록 지역사회와 정책적 차원의 적극적인 지원이 절대적으로 필요함을 강조한다. 나아가 육아와 돌봄의 영역이 ‘여성’ 고유의 영역으로 인식되고 있는 다소 편향적인 성 역할에 대하 여 사회문화적인 인식이 변화해야 할 필요성을 촉구하는 의미 있는 결과이다.

본 연구는 다문화 정책학교-유치원에서 진행되는 한국어 수업의 상황 및 문제점을 도출하고 그 해결 방안을 제언하는 데 목적이 있다. 이를 위해 본 고에서는 다문화 유아를 지도한 경험이 있는 한국어 강사 9명을 대상으로 설문조사를 진행한 후, 3명의 한국어 강사 인터뷰를 통해 문제점 과 관련된 의견을 듣고 이에 대한 요구사항을 확인하였다. 그리고 한국어 강사들의 요구를 반영하여 기관(유치원)과 한국어 강사가 현장에서 바로 적용할 수 있는 해결 방안을 제언하였다. 본 고는 다문화 유아 대상의 맞춤 형 한국어 교육과정 개발 연구가 시급함을 역설하고 표준이 될 만한 교재 및 활동 자료에 대한 필요성을 강조함으로써 다문화 유아를 위한 보편성 있고 학업 격차를 해소할 수 있는 한국어교육의 방향에 대해 논의하였다. 다만 설문조사 및 심층 인터뷰의 대상자가 적어 일반화된 결론을 도출하지 못하였다는 점에 아쉬움이 있다. 향후 본 연구에서 도출된 내용을 토대로 다문화 유아를 위한 한국어교육 방법 및 교육자료 개발이 활발히 이루어지 기를 기대한다.