Table 3.
Adjusted parental perceptions of school lunch foods in a study of perceptions of school meals among California parents of K–12 students, by race and ethnicity (n = 1050).
| %a | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All (n = 1110), % | Hispanic (H) (n = 574) | White (W) (n = 227) | Asian (A) (n = 94) | Black (B) (n = 93) | Other race/multiracial (O) (n = 122) | Racial/ethnic differencesb | |
| Positive or neutral perceptions | |||||||
| My child chooses whether to eat the school lunch based on the menu that day | 71.6 | 71.7 | 72.3 | 65.5 | 74.5 | 71.9 | None |
| My child likes to eat the school lunch to be with friends | 64.7 | 59.8 | 66.0 | 74.7 | 68.9 | 73.6 | H-A, H-O |
| My child has enough time to eat lunch at school | 54.2 | 52.0 | 56.8 | 56.2 | 64.8 | 49.4 | None |
| My child usually likes the lunches served at school | 47.4 | 43.9 | 53.7 | 56.4 | 46.1 | 46.7 | None |
| My child can get enough food at the school lunch to get full | 46.0 | 44.4 | 52.2 | 43.0 | 39.0 | 49.6 | None |
| The school lunch menu offers meals that are healthy | 44.0 | 40.2 | 53.4 | 40.0 | 51.7 | 37.1 | H-W, O-W |
| My child thinks the school lunches taste good | 39.6 | 36.1 | 47.4 | 36.4 | 42.9 | 41.2 | H-W |
| The quality of the school lunches is good | 36.9 | 32.3 | 48.1 | 32.3 | 42.0 | 35.8 | A-W, H-W |
| Negative perceptions | |||||||
| My child gets tired of the same foods being served at school lunch | 57.7 | 57.5 | 55.4 | 62.5 | 58.1 | 56.5 | None |
| My child prefers to bring food from home or buy food off-campus instead of eating the school lunch | 48.7 | 46.1 | 50.6 | 53.2 | 55.9 | 46.6 | None |
| I would prefer my child to bring food from home or buy food off-campus instead of eating the school lunch | 36.7 | 53.8 | 48.8 | 53.1 | 55.7 | 50.3 | None |
| I have concerns about the amount of sugar in school lunches | 34.3 | 39.8 | 24.4 | 46.3 | 26.6 | 26.8 | A-B, A-O, A-W, H-B, H-O, H-W |
The sample size in adjusted models is less than 1110 due to undetermined urbanicity for some parents (n = 60).
aThe percentage of parents who reported agreeing or strongly agreeing with each perception was adjusted by school level, urbanicity, free and reduced-price meal eligibility, the total number of children under 18 years old that live with the parent, and frequency of lunch consumption using logistic regression.
bThe statistical significance for pairwise comparisons is indicated in the “Differences” column with the pair of initials of the groups that are different from each other.