School Psychological Counselors And Their Nutritional Knowledge

Abstract

The literature indicates there is a bidirectional relationship between nutrition and psychological health. The purpose of the research is to explore attitudes, perceived barriers and nutrition knowledge of preservice psychological counsellors and psychological counsellors who worked at schools. This study used a cross-sectional survey design because it is an optimal way to gather opinions and behavioural information from a population. Descriptive statistics, such as frequency and percentage analyses were used to present the demographic information of the participants. The results showed female teachers had positive attitudes about nutrition counselling. Participants mostly agreed that they should use dieticians more often, which was consistent with the highest rated barrier of needing more training on nutrition. Participants reported lack of knowledge as their highest perceived barrier towards offering nutrition education. Despite such responses, participants showed interest in increasing their knowledge about nutrition.