Abstract
Objective: The current study describes a feasibility study of an experiential cooking program for alternative education students. The aims were to identify potential areas for measuring impact (beyond nutrition) and to identify issues threatening the feasibility and evaluation of the program.
Materials and methods: Weekly cooking sessions were conducted in one alternative education center over a school term. Data were collected through weekly observations, a youth focus group, and staff interview.
Results: Observational data confirmed high levels of participation by students, willingness to try new foods, and enjoyment of foods prepared. Comments from the teacher and students emphasized the wider impact of the cooking sessions on positive youth development and cultural engagement, including opportunities for socio-emotional learning, team work, socializing with peers, and cultural blessings of food.
Conclusion: Future studies should consider measures of positive youth development along with cooking skills and eating behaviors as potential outcomes.
Acknowledgments
The research reported here was funded by the University of Auckland Faculty Research Development Fund. The authors also acknowledge Professor Dianne Neumark-Sztainer for her many helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.
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©2015 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Traumatic brain injury: some good news
- Mini Review
- Premenstrual disorder and the adolescent: clinical case report, literature review, and diagnostic and therapeutic challenges
- Original articles
- The relationship between physical fitness and obesity among a sample of adolescents in Cyprus
- Exposing young people to cooking and new foods: findings from a feasibility study in an alternative education setting
- Prolonged rooming-in in infancy is associated with generalized anxiety disorder in the adolescent period
- Prevalence of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt
- Prevalence and determinants of smoking initiation among school students in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Effects of lifetime tobacco, alcohol and drug use on psychological and behavioral problems among 10th grade students in Istanbul
- Internal resilience, peer victimization, and suicidal ideation among adolescents
- Predictors of violence and depression: the case of adolescents in Turkey
- Barriers to health education in adolescents: health care providers’ perspectives compared to high school adolescents
- Eating disorders in adolescents: how does the DSM-5 change the diagnosis?
- Perceptions of family styles by adolescents with eating disorders and their parents
- Age at menarche and diet among adolescents in slums of Nashik, India
- Case Reports
- Charging of the penis: an unusual method for sexual gratification
- An adolescent with asthma presenting with worsening cough
- Urethral foreign body in an adolescent boy: report of two rare cases and review of literature
- Short Communication
- HIV testing among non-incarcerated substance-abusing juvenile offenders
- Letter to the Editor
- Is the Internet the only factor of negative health outcomes amongst college students?
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Traumatic brain injury: some good news
- Mini Review
- Premenstrual disorder and the adolescent: clinical case report, literature review, and diagnostic and therapeutic challenges
- Original articles
- The relationship between physical fitness and obesity among a sample of adolescents in Cyprus
- Exposing young people to cooking and new foods: findings from a feasibility study in an alternative education setting
- Prolonged rooming-in in infancy is associated with generalized anxiety disorder in the adolescent period
- Prevalence of bullying in secondary schools in Port Harcourt
- Prevalence and determinants of smoking initiation among school students in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Effects of lifetime tobacco, alcohol and drug use on psychological and behavioral problems among 10th grade students in Istanbul
- Internal resilience, peer victimization, and suicidal ideation among adolescents
- Predictors of violence and depression: the case of adolescents in Turkey
- Barriers to health education in adolescents: health care providers’ perspectives compared to high school adolescents
- Eating disorders in adolescents: how does the DSM-5 change the diagnosis?
- Perceptions of family styles by adolescents with eating disorders and their parents
- Age at menarche and diet among adolescents in slums of Nashik, India
- Case Reports
- Charging of the penis: an unusual method for sexual gratification
- An adolescent with asthma presenting with worsening cough
- Urethral foreign body in an adolescent boy: report of two rare cases and review of literature
- Short Communication
- HIV testing among non-incarcerated substance-abusing juvenile offenders
- Letter to the Editor
- Is the Internet the only factor of negative health outcomes amongst college students?