The Effects of Breakfast on Private High School Students

The US has tackled the issue of students across the globe skipping breakfast with free breakfast in K-12 public schools. ~52.3% of school-aged children get breakfast, but these numbers decrease with age, with higher rates among 12–15 year-olds, those with highly educated mothers, and those from low-income families. Private schools do not have access to free breakfast programs. This study aims to analyze the impact on students in private schools of receiving subsidized breakfast through PTO-operated concession stands. Participants were tested over a week, split between those given access to breakfast and those given no breakfast, and measured on self-assessed levels of hunger, mood, energy, and focus. The second week, the no-breakfast group was split into two groups and mimicked free breakfast programs found in public schools to analyze the effectiveness of this program in private schools. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were applied to the intervention data, and only one comparison (pre-lunch hunger in Week 2) reached statistical significance. Due to the self-reported nature of the outcome measures and the limited sample sizes across phases (n = 118 survey respondents; n = 46 Week 1; n = 18 Week 2), findings should be interpreted as preliminary and descriptive rather than conclusive.