Is Breakfast Consumption Related to Mental Distress and Academic Performance in Adolescents?

Objective: To examine the relationship between mental distress, academic performance and regular breakfast consumption across gender and immigration status.

Design: Cross-sectional population-based study. Two four-page questionnaires were filled in during two school sessions.

Setting: All junior high schools in Oslo, Norway using the classroom as the setting for the study.

Subjects: All 10th grade students 15-16 years olds in 2000 and 2001. Of 8316 eligible students, 7343 (88.3%) participated in the study.

Results: All immigrant groups, except the Western countries group, are skipping breakfast more often than Norwegian students, and girls more often than boys (27 versus 19%). After adjustment for possible confounding factors, the odds ratio (OR) for being mentally distressed when eating breakfast seldom/never compared with every day was 3.0 (2.0-4.5) for boys, 1.6 (1.2-2.1) for girls and 1.6 (1.5-2.6) for the immigrant group. The comparable OR for having low school grades was similar for boys and girls, 2.0 (1.3-3.0), and 1.6 (1.5-2.6) for the immigrant groups.

Conclusions: Skipping breakfast is a common feature among 10th grade students. The implications of skipping breakfast on mental distress and academic performance are stronger for boys than girls and stronger for Norwegians compared with immigrants.