Culinary competencies and diet patterns of undergraduate students of the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.

ABSTRACT

While substantial literature exists on the culinary competencies and diet patterns of the young adult population around the world, little is known about these variables in the Ghanaian context and much less in the university circles. In view of this dearth in literature, this study investigated the culinary competencies and diet patterns of undergraduate students of the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, within the context of the Social Cognitive Theory. In line with the positivist paradigm, this study utilized the correlational research design, where through the quantitative approach, 3,065 students were sampled using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. After meeting validity and reliability requirements, a structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study which was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, mean, standard deviation and inferential (Pearson Moment Correlation) statistics. The findings of the study revealed that the culinary competencies of undergraduate students of the University of Education, Winneba, was undesirable, even though they exhibited cooking confidence than cooking frequency and cooking attitude. Besides, the findings further disclosed that students exhibited undesired diet patterns where majority often skipped meals, occasionally ate three square meals, occasionally ate fruits and vegetables and rarely observed regularity in mealtimes. Furthermore, it was discovered that generally there was a weak but statistically significant positive relationship between undergraduate students’ culinary competencies and diet patterns. Hence, the study identifies the need by way of recommendations for nutrition education programmes for students to improve their culinary competencies since it has implications on their diet patterns.

Keywords: Culinary competencies, diet patterns, food, undergraduate students.