The Relation Between Breakfast Skipping and School Performance in Adolescents
Article first published online: 24 MAY 2012
© 2012 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2012 International Mind, Brain, and Education Society and Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
Mind, Brain, and Education
Volume 6, Issue 2, pages 81–88, June 2012
How to Cite
Boschloo, A., Ouwehand, C., Dekker, S., Lee, N., de Groot, R., Krabbendam, L. and Jolles, J. (2012), The Relation Between Breakfast Skipping and School Performance in Adolescents. Mind, Brain, and Education, 6: 81–88. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-228X.2012.01138.x
- Issue published online: 24 MAY 2012
- Article first published online: 24 MAY 2012
Breakfast skipping is common in adolescents, but research on the effects of breakfast skipping on school performance is scarce. This current cross-sectional survey study of 605 adolescents aged 11–18 years investigated whether adolescents who habitually skip breakfast have lower end-of-term grades than adolescents who eat breakfast daily. Additionally, the roles of sleep behavior, namely chronotype, and attention were explored. Results showed that breakfast skippers performed lower at school than breakfast eaters. The findings were similar for younger and older adolescents and for boys and girls. Adolescents with an evening chronotype were more likely to skip breakfast, but chronotype was unrelated to school performance. Furthermore, attention problems partially mediated the relation between breakfast skipping and school performance. This large-scale study emphasizes the importance of breakfast as a determinant for school performance. The results give reason to investigate the mechanisms underlying the relation between skipping breakfast, attention, and school performance in more detail.