Abstract
As a result of the sudden change of our society and the increasing employment of married women, it is necessary for men to participate in household works. The purpose of this study was to investigate consciousness of and participation in meal management of 30 to 50 years old Korean married men, living in Incheon and Ganghwa. The younger and the lower the education, consciousness about the meal management was lower. More than half of the subjects responded ‘Men can do participate in preparation of meals if necessary’ and the lowest of the subjects responded ‘Men should not participate in preparation of meals’. It showed that the consciousness of participation in meal management was changing positively. Although the consciousness of participation in meal management was positive, the real rate of meal management participation was not that high. Men were participated in grocery shopping, dish washing, cooking and menu planning in order. The average score of nutrition knowledge was high but there was no significant correlation between the nutrition knowledge and the participation in meal management. There were no correlations between the consciousness of and the participation in meal management. But there were strong correlations among each other in meal management behaviors such as grocery shopping, dish washing, cooking and menu planning. Our results suggested that nutritional education should be carried out in menu planning and cooking demanding knowledge and training.