Parental Demographic Variables as Determinants of Knowledge of Nutritional Needs of Preschoolers in North Central Zone, Nigeria

The general purpose of the study was to determine the influence of demographic variables of parents on knowledge and practices of nutritional needs and cognitive readiness of preschoolers in North Central Zone, Nigeria. The study adopted an ex post facto research design with a sample of 400 parents of preschool children drawn using multistage sampling procedure. Two instruments were used for data collection; “Parental Knowledge and Practices of Nutritional Needs of Preschoolers Questionnaire (PKPNNPQ) and Parental Knowledge and Practices of Cognitive Readiness of Preschoolers Questionnaire (PKPCRPQ). The instruments were validated by three experts. The reliability indices of the instruments were estimated using Cronbach’s Alpha approach. The overall reliability coefficients of PKPNNPQ and PKPCRPQ were 0.84 and 0.82 respectively. Data collected were analyzed using mean, ANOVA and t-test statistics. Mean was used to answer all the research questions, while ANOVA and t-test statistics were used to test all the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that parents’ occupation had significant influence on their knowledge, and practice of the nutritional needs of preschoolers while location had no significant influence. It was therefore recommended that parents in different occupations should be educated and equipped with the necessary knowledge in their workplace about the nutritional needs of preschoolers.