Abstract: An adequate vegetable intake provides essential nutrients, and the importance of vegetable intake has been emphasized. Picky eating behaviour, which is a problem in children with intellectual disability (ID), may result in a lack of vegetable intake. The aim
of this research was to investigate how parental psychological factors, e.g. self-efficacy,

outcome expectancy, is associated with vegetable intake in children with ID. This cross-sectional study was conducted on school children from sixteen special needs schools in the Ibaraki prefecture and the two in other areas. A questionnaire on parental outcome expectancy, self-efficacy and a brief self-administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ)
was distributed to parents of all school children in the first to sixth grade of elementary
school on 2nd September 2022. Parental outcome expectancy and self-efficacy were
assessed using a five-ordinal scale. A lack of vegetable intake is defined as less than 130g
of vegetable intake, which for children, is considered to be two portions. Logistic
regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratio (O.R.) with a 95% confidence
interval for analysis of the effects of parental factors on the children’s vegetable intake.
The data is based on a total of 447 participants (27.6% participation rate). It was observed
that the parents of children who consume less than 130g of vegetables a day have a lower
outcome expectancy of adequate vegetable consumption (adjusted O.R.=0.877,p=0.017); a

higher tendency to stop too much snacking (adjusted O.R.=1.562,p=0.065); a lower self-
efficacy regarding adequate vegetable intake (adjusted O.R.=0.508, p