Amanda Oakley and Sharon M. Nickols-Richardson
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of peer-led nutrition education compared to adult-led education in a population of early adolescents.
Study Design, Setting and Participants, and Intervention: Youth [6th-7th grade, aged 12.1 ± 1.1 years (mean ± SD)] were randomized to adult-led (n = 20) or peer-led (n = 22) intervention groups. Youth participants attended two, 2-hour culinary skills lessons where cutting techniques, cooking methods and following recipes were addressed. Lessons were taught in two groups, allowing for a total of four adult-led lessons and four peer-led lessons.
Outcome Measures and Analysis: Fidelity checklists were used to compare program delivery of adult leaders and peer leaders. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize differences between intervention groups.
Results: Lesson length was comparable for both adult-led (155 ± 15.8 minutes) and peer-led (154 ± 11.9 minutes) groups. Adult-leaders and peer-leaders both completed all planned activities, kept participants on task, and maintained appropriate pace during all lessons. Peer-leaders emphasized fruit and vegetable consumption in 25% of lessons compared to 75% by adult-leaders. Qualitative comments noted that peer-leaders were more informal and did not always utilize proper cutting techniques compared to the adult-leaders.
Conclusions and Implications: Adolescent peers can serve as leaders for a culinary skills based nutrition education intervention, however, additional training may be needed for specific skills.
Funding Agency: This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2012-68001-22032.