The Relationship between the Frequency of Breakfast Consumption, Conversation with Parents, and Somatic Symptoms in Children: A Three-Wave Latent Growth Model

Breakfast consumption is essential for children to generate energy for the day. Parents play an important role in children’s breakfast habits and spending time with parents during breakfast greatly influences children’s emotional development. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between the frequency of children’s breakfast consumption, time spent in conversation with parents, and children’s somatic symptoms. Data were obtained from the Korea Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018 and were initially collected from fourth-grade elementary school students and followed up for three years. SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 software were used for data analysis. Multivariate latent growth modeling was applied to analyze the effect of the breakfast consumption frequency on children’s somatic symptoms and the mediating effect of parent–child conversation time on this relationship. Consequently, as children’s frequency of breakfast consumption increased, their somatic symptoms decreased. Furthermore, parent–child conversation time mediated the relationship between these two variables. Therefore, students, parents, and teachers should be educated about the importance of having breakfast and communicating with parents for students’ emotional health.