Parental Food Management Practices and Learners' Nutritional Status Towards the Academic Performance of Grade 3 Learners: Basis for a Proposed Smart-Eat Intervention Program

The purpose of this study was to determine the significant relationship between parental food management practices, learners' nutritional status, and academic performance. This study employed a quantitative descriptive correlational survey design. The respondents of this study were the 158 Grade 3 learners in Alabel 3 District, Division of Sarangani, for the school year 2024–2025. The sample size for each school was determined using a Stratified Sampling. To provide a thorough interpretation and analysis of the data, the following statistical methods were used: Mean, Frequency Count and Percentage, and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (Pearson r). Based on the results, the level of parental food management practices in terms of Frequency of Meals Provided and Nutritional Quality of Meals was moderately high, while strongly high in terms of Meal Distribution. Moreover, the learners’ nutritional status was normal. Further, the learners’ academic performance was satisfactory. The computed Pearson's Product-Moment Coefficient of Correlation was 0.82 is significantly higher than the tabular value of 0.159. Thus, there was a significant relationship between parental food management practices and learners' academic performance and nutritional status and learners’ academic performance. This implied that as food management practices of parents increase, learners’ nutritional status and academic performance also increase. This study recommends strengthened parental food management practices to enhance learners’ nutritional status and their academic performance.