Missed meals are common in children and adolescents, especially breakfast which 30% reported missing more than 5x per week.
Reasons that children and adolescents skip meals:
- Food insecurity
- Don’t like the taste
- Becoming distracted
- Not feeling hungry
- Trying to lose weight
Missing meals can be related to:
- Higher stress
- Lower quality of life
- Poor self-esteem
Researchers in the current study wanted to add to this literature by determining how missed meals and hunger might impact the mood states of early adolescents in 5th and 6th grades. The researchers asked 133 students a variety of questions about their mood, breakfast, lunch, and hunger levels. Researchers found that missing breakfast was associated with feeling sad while missing lunch was related to feeling sad and having a decreased feeling of cheerfulness. Interestingly, hunger was not related to either feeling.
Take home message: It is common for children and adolescents to occasionally skip meals. However, missed meals can have a negative impact on children’s mental and physical health.
Reference:
MacNeil, A., Farrell-Reeves, A., Elgar, F., & Dirks, M. Food and mood: Daily associations between missed meals and affect among early adolescents. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol, 2022; https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2022.2096045.
